Although published research in Maltese has increased significantly, there is still a dearth of academic material where theatre studies are concerned. A recently published book by Horizons, the publishing house that has garnered a reputation for its stable of respected authors, seeks to address the matter of extending the use of Maltese in the context of theatre research through an examination of the instinctive penchant for the dramatic coursing through some of the Church’s more mystical saints.
Written as a series of stand-alone essays, the book is ideal for readers to peruse a chapter in a single session, an added advantage given the academic subject matter, which, however, is rendered in an extremely tractable style. The poet and theatre director Mario Azzopardi, cements his reputation as a writer who does not shy away from dealing with “controversy” and is meticulous in trying to decipher the dramatic expression of highly idiosyncratic individuals who acted as a destabilising influence on existing ecclesiastical hierarchies. St Francis of Assisi, St John Bosco, Teresa of Avila (seen through Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s spectacular rendition in marble of her ecstatic union with the divine), Thérèse of Lisieux, as well as “eccentric” mystics from the Russian Orthodox Church are among some of the mystics that attract Azzopardi’s interest at the level of gesture and performance. As a poet, then, Azzopardi, is instinctively drawn to language and the chasm between what can be articulated and that which is suppressed and muted.
As in his poetry, Azzopardi is drawn to these religious mystics whose status as outsiders made them suspect to elite power structures. In dealing with the theme of religious ecstasy and demonic persecution, the author assiduously desists from belittling the saints’ extreme behaviour and seeks to understand it using historical research, theoretical psychology as well as theatre and literary criticism.
The fascination artists have consistently exhibited towards the religious (be it as a source of ritual and spectacle or as ripe material for social protest and parody) engages Azzopardi’s interest too. Dante, Milton, Shakespeare, Dostoeivski, Josè Saramago Roberto Benigni and Dario Fo are some of the artists Azzopardi investigates at considerable length in his quest of dissecting the dramatic from the spiritual mystical experience.
The author has interviewed a number of representatives from various religious Orders to support his interpretation and give the text an immediacy that appeals to readers. He has also delved into the episodic haematological manifestations of an Italian novice who lived in Malta for a short while in the 19th century, through a compilation of the bloodstained handkerchiefs held at the Jesuit archives in Naxxar.
Focusing on the dynamic nature of the theatre, Azzopardi seeks to transform the distancing effect of academic language through an original theatre script (included as an appendix) dealing with the trial of the Jesuit Jean-Baptiste Girard accused of seducing Marie-Catherine Cadière. Historical in nature, this text has implications that are still highly relevant today in that it speaks to all women (and men) who are harassed by authority figures.