Lino Farrugia is a very busy man. Currently he is working on three, equally intensive projects. He adds that until a couple of days ago there were actually four projects – he also had to decorate the Christmas Tree with his daughter Victoria – a project in which similar to a theatre production, he has to consider factors like
budget, location (front hall) and theme (gold). Maria Giuliana Fenech caught up with him to find out all about it.
Lino Farrugia’s other impending projects are Sulari fuq Strada Stretta, Ara gejja l-mewt ghalik and a project with the Istituto di Dramma Antico, of Syracuse and The Drama Centre on the incentive of the ITS.
Sulari fuq Strada Stretta is written by Mario Philip Azzopardi of Il-Gagga and Savage Messiah fame. Indeed he is especially coming over to Malta in order to direct the play which will be performed from the 25 to 27 January at the Manoel Theatre.
The starring actors are Monica Attard, Ninette Micallef, John Suda and the newcomer Sean Buhagiar. Lino Farrugia says “I am very proud of my past student Sean Buhagiar. In my opinion he played a stellar lead in Equus, despite what some critic has written.” He laughingly adds “I believe in encouraging people rather than destroying them!”
Lino Farrugia’s second work in progress is Ara Gejja l-Mewt Ghalik. He explains, “In Ara gejja l-mewt ghalik, which is a work commissioned by Mario Micallef, I am trying out a new style of writing. I usually write about all things positive. However, this time I am going to tread new ground and the play is about evil, hatred and vengeance. My three main characters are horrible people, definitely created especially for the play. I sincerely hope that I will never meet anyone like them. This play is about the darker side of life and the evil that man does with grievous consequences for the generations to follow. Once again Monica Attard will be performing, joined by Mario Micallef and I am auditioning 40 plus actress for the other role. In essence this play is about fathers. I cannot call this play as psychological thriller as it is not a thriller per se however the intentions of the characters towards each other are from pure. This play is going to be performed in April at St James’ Cavalier, in mid- April.”
Mr Farrugia continues “My other project is a collaboration with the Malta Drama Centre through contacts created by the PRISMA project. The PRISMA project is an EU-funded project being coordinated in Malta by ITS in partnership with Arces University in Sicily. A group of about 20 actors from The Malta Drama Centre will be visiting the Istituto di Dramma Antico of Syrcuse. During Early Summer 2008 I hope to take up a group of actors and back stage people in order to perform in the open air Greek theatre. We are going to perform Euripides’ The Bacchae trilingually – in Maltese, English and Italian at a festival, which is attended by most youth theatrical groups from Europe.”
Mr Farrugia says that all this will keep his plate full till September 2008. “Come October 2008 I will probably start working on a new play but this time my subject matter is going to be youth and the choices they have to make when they find themselves in a particular position. The questions posed are going to be whether the youths should follow their natural instincts or let reason prevail. I have been pondering about this subject matter since my own youth, as I believe that problems only apparently change. I am going to be examining a perennial situation which is merely adjusted according to the epoch.”
Mr Farrugia recalled some memories of his own youth. He says, “My family has humble roots with no artistic traits. My grandmother had 22 children and I am the only grandchild who is involved so directly with the theatre world. My own daughter, although she loves theatre, is in no way involved in the theatre world. As for my mother, despite never appearing on stage, she was extremely theatrical. Every week my parents would take us to Deporres Hall and there I saw the greats – Nosi Ghirlando, Charles Izzo, Johnny Navarro, Mary C. Camilleri and all the others who are still among us. I also owe my introduction to theatre to Mgr Lawrence Gatt who before he became the director of Id-Dar tal-Providenza, and a Vatican Diplomat, was master of discipline at the seminary. I often used to be late for school, which also meant that as a result I would be late leaving school. During these after-school-detentions, Mgr Gatt would encourage me to work on my theatre productions and my first production was Julius Caesar when I was 15-years-old.
“After school I was a founding member together with Karmen Azzopardi and Chevalier Paul Naudi of Atturi Productions at the Phoenicia Playhouse. In the early seventies, I directed F’Bahar Wiehed by Lino Grech, which was my first foray to television. This ran for 32 episodes and was followed by Francis Ebejer’s Id-Dar tas-Soru and Eduardo de Filippo’s Filomena Marturano. I also wrote and directed Wirt, an eight-hour costume drama.
“I was also involved in students’ drama with X’senuru.
Ironically many of the people involved in X’senuru are today politicians, lawyers and even judges. This drama group was a students’ attempt to prove that theatre is not only for entertainment but also a means in which angry young men could express themselves against the run-of-the-mill norms of society.
“I must also mention my time with Atturi Group for whom I was a resident director. I was constantly planning a production or in production for the whole nine months of the theatre season. I have produced some 60 theatre pieces and I believe that 40 of these would be for Atturi Group. I am very fortunate as I can say that in 1972 I directed Francis Ebejer’s phantasmagorical Vum-Barala-Zungaré for the International Arts festival.”
Mr Farrugia adds that after all these years he still feels an adrenaline rush. He says “I never do any repeats of my plays and I look back at all my productions very fondly, in particular my Eduardo de Filippo cycle and my 1993 play L-omm l-ohra. Although I have been around for quite a while I do not like it when I am referred to as a veteran theatre director. My work with experimental theatre and the Malta Drama Centre keeps me young. Last year, I ventured an interpretation of T. S. Eliot’s The Wasteland. This provides me with an impetus to keep discovering new ideas and also keeps me very energetic. I am very surprised when 20-year-olds ask me for a five minute break in order to rest! I also insist that my work at the Malta Drama Centre is not of a tutor but rather of a director. All my classes are a directing exercise and over the past years some excellent actors have emerged from the Centre. The actors at the Malta Drama Centre sit for the LAMDA exams and many achieve top distinctions and top grades. I felt that one of the problems of Maltese youth is that they do not speak Maltese or English correctly. The first think I instruct them to do is to remove words like naqa and ziggi from their vocabulary. It is terrible when parts in English are performed with a Maltese intonation with questions ending with ej? Also drama schools keep cropping up all over the island but good actors are not made, rather they are born. The Drama Centre fashions the gold – we are not alchemists who can make gold from metal.”
When asked about the state of television productions nowadays Mr Farrugia’s stare and silence speak volumes before he exclaims, “Today everything is done for nominations. I refuse to be nominated. I do not want to be and nor will I ever be nominated. Television productions today have lost all sense of proportion!” After this proclamation Mr Farrugia declares “And now I will forever hold my peace!!”