A group of actors from the Malta Drama Centre are currently rehearsing a community theatre play, Gunita’s Story, which will be presented in Latvia next month, part of an ongoing EU project on domestic violence in that country. This is the second phase of a Grundtvig Adult Learning project that also involves Austria, Greece and Finland.

The first part of the project focused on the collection of data by Maltese actors in Latvia as well as on improvisations on the theme of spousal abuse, with both Maltese participants and actors from the Akniste Theatre Company in the host country.

Matrimonial violence is against the law in Latvia but there is heavy criticism that the government did not, in large parts, devise proper measures to crack down on the crime and enforce the law. The Maltese group of actors discovered that the subject is normally kept under wraps and that spousal abuse, although widespread, is underreported. Moreover, victims are uninformed about their rights; there are no shelters for them and no available hotlines.

“We have devised a play to expose the situation and to provoke some form of action through theatre,” explained Mario Azzopardi, head of the Drama Centre. “We have assembled a series of structured scenes on the experience we gained when we first visited Latvia and now our actors will go and play out the drama and invite reactions from the audience which, we have been forewarned, would probably not include males, who are expected to just opt out.”

Actually, this Grundtvig experience involves creative training in community drama, a genre that continues to gain much credit, especially in areas where there is a heavy presence of marginalised or disenfranchised people. Gunita’s Story will provoke the Latvian public to choose between awareness, action and resolution and the acceptance of a situation which has, owing to long, traditional attitudes, been neglected and pushed aside in spite of its sad consequences.

Gunita’s Story will be performed in Maltese, English and Latvian and will be directed by Chris X. Grech, a regular tutor at the Malta Drama Centre. Meanwhile, also in March, and as part of the ongoing Grundtvig programme, a group of Austrian actors will visit the Malta Drama Centre to perform Identities, a community drama piece which will mirror Maltese social realities as perceived by a troupe of theatre-makers from Vienna.