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Friday 3 June 2016

Si scrivono ancora commedie, 

ma con vergogna o con paura”

                                                                                                                                                      Ruggero Jacobbi


We still write plays, but in shame or with fear




Was struck by an article in Hystrio (February 2016)  by Fabrizio Sebastian Caleffi* which brought to mind an article I wrote some years ago about what eventually became Sunday paper correspondence fodder regarding Dead Playwrights Revisited,  a rare moment of introspection for a very limited few about the state of playwrighting and Maltese theatre, when theatre in Malta required the perennial infusion of new blood.

That, of course, no longer raises the blood pressure of our new generation of scribes.  As Caleffi puts it :

“Cinquantaquattro anni dopo, the Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 
scotta ancora o ė cotta e, se é cotta, di chi?

And to  quote another volley by Caleffi:

“Quanti fantasmi circondano I’autore drammatico italiano? (...) il fantasma di Pirandello, che schiaccia i suoi continuatori... il fantasma della critica letteraria, col suo disprezzo pel teatro, il fantasma della critica teatrale, con la sua religione della struttura, dell'interesse, del ritmo... il fantasma del provincialismo per i cosmopoliti, il fantasma del bozzettismo per i regionali e i popolareschi... Che fare?

It would be interesting to elicit a translation (in English or Maltese) which however puts it in the context of Maltese theatre or theatre in Malta.  And more to the point, in the context of playwrighting in Malta today.

*HYSTRIO (Anno XXIX - 2/2016) 
Tennessee William Shakespeare’ by Fabrizio Sebastian Caleffi