In Land of the Big Word Factory, all words are produced in a huge word factory. So in this place, if you are rich, you can speak as often as you like but poor people cannot afford to buy many words and can only use more common, rejected or obsolete words to communicate whatever they would like to express. A young boy, Phileas, secretly loves Cybele, but, being poor, he cannot ever hope to buy the words to tell her how he feels.
This production is an English adaptation of the album La grande fabrique de mots written by Agnes de Lestrade and illustrated by Valeria Docampo. The book was originally written in French but it has been translated into 27 different languages, including a Maltese version Il-Fabbrika tal-kliem by Clare Azzopardi and published by Merlin.
The book struck the lovely people at Theatre Anon as an interesting and lovely story with extremely evocative illustrations. They agreed it would be great as a performance for children and it offered the perfect opportunity for them to explore storytelling and the use of puppetry, which they felt could animate the story perfectly.
Set up in 1994, Theatre Anon is made up of performers and theatre-makers who all contribute directly to the creative process including composition, costume, set and light design, stage direction and physical work with the aim of ensuring that audiences enjoy a highly theatrical and entertaining experience.
The theatre company was commissioned by Ziguzajg to perform Land of the Big Word Factory for the international theatre festival for children and young people in November 2017 and had a great audience reception as well as very positive critic reviews.
Land of the Big Word Factory is directed by Chris Gatt and performed by Liliana Portelli, Pierre Stafrace, Charlotte Grech and Paula Fleri Soler with live music by Jes Psaila. Pierre and Liliana also produced the puppets and set design and Marcon Pisani made the costumes. Props and set were produced by Paul Portelli and Gordon Dimech.
Earlier this year, they were approached by Teatru Salesjan, Sliema's community theatre, who was planning to launch a special theatre season called Nuna Palk, in collaboration with Culture Venture. Through the programme, Teatru Salesjan hopes to connect the different communities through creativity and particularly seek to attract young audiences to the building making it a centre of culture for the young.
"Land of the Big Word Factory fits well into the Nuna Palk concept as it offers an engaging story that works on many different levels. Although it is recommended for children over four years, the production really touches both young and old. Apart from the beautiful storyline, the audience will enjoy the puppetry work, the projections and the actors interacting with projected puppets!" says an enthusiastic Lily.
"Theatre Anon is very pleased to be part of Nuna Palk at Teatru Salesjan because we believe in the importance of this art form for children," says Pierre. "Theatre encourages imagination and curiosity in children, lengthens their attention span and can help to boost their vocabulary. Through theatre, children are transported into the hearts and minds of the characters on stage, recognising and understanding their actions and feelings, which ultimately encourages communication and empathy."
Theatre Anon's next production will be part of the Malta Arts Festival and will also include puppetry but it's quite a different concept! They can't give more information just yet but watch out for more details on the Festival website.
Land of the Big Word Factory will be performed at Teatru Salesjan, Sliema on Saturday, 5 and Sunday, 6 May at 6.30pm.
Tickets, which start at €8 and include a special offer for families with a free ticket for nannu or nanna are available from www.tsmalta.com/tickets