A group of actors from the Malta Drama Centre are rehearsing a community theatre play, Gunita’s Story, which is to be presented in Latvia next month as part of an ongoing EU project on domestic violence in that country. It is the second phase of a Grundtvig Adult Learning project which is also involving 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, engaging both Maltese participants and actors from the Akniste Theatre Company in the host country.

In Latvia matrimonial violence is against the law but there is heavy criticism that the government did not, in large parts, devise proper measures to counter 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. Victims are also uninformed about their rights; there are no shelters for them and no available hotlines.

“We now 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 are forewarned, would probably not include men, who are expected to just opt out.”

Actually this Grundtvig experience involves creative training in community

drama, a genre which continues to gain much credit, especially within areas where there is a heavy presence of marginalised or disenfranchised people. Gunita’s Story

should provoke the Latvia public to choose between awareness, action and resolution or the acceptance of a situation which has, owing to long, traditional attitudes, been neglected and pushed aside in spite of its consequences.

Gunita’s Story will be performed in Maltese, English and Latvian and will be directed for the Malta Drama Centre by Chris X. Grech, a regular tutor at the local state institution. 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 put a mirror to Maltese social realities as perceived by a troupe of theatre-makers from Vienna.