After a period of 19 years, what was the best original play by a Maltese playwright of the 1980s is being revived.

Theatre director Michael Fenech (who has produced the successful Festival of Satire Bla Kommixin for four years running) has teamed up with playwright Alfred Buttigieg and composer Manoel Pirotta, to bring back to life the mischievous but thought-provoking play-within-a-play about a group of late 18th century students who wreak havoc on their headmaster’s plans to make them perform a heroic representation of a revolt attempted by a group of priests 20 years earlier.

People who saw the play in 1986 felt it was at least as much about late 20th century Malta as it was about the 18th century. In 2005, this play about a play about a revolution that did not happen 20 years previously must make audiences think. And smile. And laugh. And maybe sing along with the actors. And walk out of the theatre and want to change the world. Or go out of the theatre and stop bothering about changing the world.

Nineteen years is almost a lifetime. Yet, many times it is not long enough to forget. The people who saw Ir-Rewwixta tal-Qassisin at the Manoel Theatre in December 1986 will never forget that play, just as in the play the people who remember the priests’ revolt cannot forget the bloody events of those few days.

Ten years on, Ir-Rewwixta is back at the Manoel. The last time around, although the play was very successful, its success was overshadowed by the fact that it was hailed as an anti-government play, a tale of a power which, like the Order of St John, had overstayed its welcome, and no amount of cosmetic changes would make it more appealing to a stretched population. Predictably, the Labour Party went into opposition in 1987, just six months after the play, to give way to the Nationalist Party that has been in government almost uninterruptedly ever since.

Today’s audiences have the opportunity to take a fresh look at the play. It may now be the right time to consider the play as an indictment of all politicians, whatever cause they claim to serve, as usurpers of rights granted to them by a patient and generally credulous population.

Then again, Ir-Rewwixta is just theatre, and musical theatre at that. The people who will see the play might not care one little bit about what it is saying that Alfred Buttigieg is saying. In spite of this, one thing is sure: they will enjoy every minute of it.

Ir-Rewwixta tal-Qassisin, is being produced at the Manoel Theatre on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 25, 26 and 27 February 2005. Taking part are Manuel Cauchi, Joe Cortis, Philip Mizzi, Leigh-Anne Abela, Simone Zammit and Jesmond Tedesco Triccas.

Ir-Rewwixta tal-Qassisin has been generously sponsored by Bank of Valletta, go Mobile and the Malta Council for Culture and The Arts. Booking is available from the Manoel Theatre on 2124-6389 or on-line at www.teatrumanoel.com.