The theatre in Malta : part II

Abstract

Ebejer's second play, Boulevard, is probably his best thitherto, a magnificent example of total theatre. It is hard to believe, in fact , that it has never been performed since its brief run in 1964. The author's own production of this play brought out all its poetry by means of harmonious decor, costume and lighting, elegance of the acting and quasi-choreographic movements, and varying rhythms in the pace. The play itself is based on a series of images both in the dialogue and in the action, and sometimes reaches a highly poetic level of expression. Ebejer here detaches himself even more completely from a realistic idiom than in Vaganzi tas-Sajf and presents a number of human predicaments in their essence without the hindrance of realistic conventions. His hopelessly lost characters, are contested by Gregorex, a religious leader, and Blonk, an artist manque turned rebel. First one, then the other, wins, but at the end both have to give up, and both are revealed as two faces of the same coin, authoritarians and cynics.