There is a copy of the Bible in almost every Maltese house, and for each person reading it there is a unique interpretation. Now the Old Testament is being offered at the Manoel Theatre in a unique interpretation from German director Bjorn Potulski. His invitation to Maltese audiences, in this first of 12 episodes to be produced in Malta, is to choose which aspect of the Bible relates to their personal cultural roots.

In classical art and also in Hollywood works we have always been presented with symbolic representations of Genesis, which expect us to be spoon-fed clichés of accepted Bible readings. At the Manoel, patrons will see a gradual deconstruction of the well-known Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel and finally Noah and his ark stories. Eventually the choreography re-builds the parts to make a sum of messages greater than the original.

To do this, Potulski recruited the talents of Catalan Jaime Villalba, his fellow director/ choreographer. These last two months, Villalba has been training 20 young actors, who are graduates from, or still studying at, the National Drama Centre. Their school principal, Mario Azzopardi, welcomed this opportunity to give his students an international professional experience in modern theatre.

The cast includes the veteran and versatile actor Narcy Calamatta as the orthodox type bible reader, who experiences a nightmarish mental dilemma in accepting what he is preaching. To his chagrin he watches the audience before him disintegrate. His fears and doubts are projected in the abstract action of the chorus.

The eventual re-establishment of order and conventionality comes with the reader’s relating of the rainbow incident. By then the audience will have assimilated their own conflicting ideas with this original theatre production and come out fulfilled by its solutions.

This avant-garde show has high production value. Spanish composer and concert pianist Nélida Béjar was commissioned to write contemporary abstract music specifically for this show and she plays her score and musical special effects on the Manoel’s Steinway concert piano.

Björn Potulski is a theatre lighting specialist. We have already seen his creative work in the mammoth lighting plot for Maleth’s January production of Greene’s The End of the Affair. For Creation, Potulski has designed lighting that underlines the surreal visuals of his direction. The music, lighting and choreography give this production a high degree of entertainment value.

Professor of aesthetics Fr Peter Serracino Inglott had this to say about the production: “It was evident that the actors had contributed to the choral enactment with a creative personal commitment that gave extreme conviction to their performance which also proved a constant challenge to the audience”.

The next presentations of Creation will be on 11 May and 13 May. The shows start at 8pm at the Manoel Theatre and both will be followed by panel discussions chaired by Prof. Fr Peter Serracino Inglott due to the Hebrew Bible as a base narrative of European Culture. The booking is open on Tel: 2124-6389 or [email protected], www.teatrumanoel.com A brief video trailer can be seen on the company’s website www.the-old-testament.eu