Renaissance

on programme

24. 5. 2021. On-line

In the past few weeks Malta has reached new unfortunate records in COVID outbreaks and thus Government has had to initiative harsher directives, namely prohibiting many different types of mass events and going into some form of a soft lockdown. We follow a young girl, Leah, who was participating in one of our projects - Trikki Trakki Youth Theatre Festival, which was set to be in full production. The festival is halted, and the young girl must go back to her new-normal life; going to zoom-school, and scrolling through social media. She gets very frustrated that she cannot interact with anyone anymore except for online interaction, and we feel a sense of desensitisation of the world around her. Leah climbs into bed, looks around her room and re-discovers books. She starts to enjoy reading again. She's determined to read more, so she goes to a library and starts picking up more books from the library, learning about theatre and renaissance. One night, we see Leah in bed, book in hand, fighting sleep. She closes her eyes for a brief second, and opens them back again to find herself in front of the Gutenberg press (a book printing company). A dream sequence ensues, where she prints and binds the Rinaxximent book through choreography. She slowly opens the final product, at which point Leah wakes up. Confused, she checks the book in hand, finding it the same Rinaxximent book, opens it again to find it empty.

The empty book titled Rinaxximent is our take on what renaissance and the rebirth of theatre is in Malta during COVID. We are yet to experience a rebirth, so Leah opening such an empty book is in a way instigating such a renaissance.

Teatru Malta – Malta

Written and Directed by Sean Buhagiar
Cinematography by Karl Andrew Micallef
Music: Yazmin Kuymizakis
Casting Director: Christian Debono
Editing: Karl Andrew Micallef
Associate Producer: Mireille Estelle Camilleri
Line Producer: Christian Debono
Executive Producer: Sean Buhagiar
Book Design: BloomCreative
With: Leah Grech, Ian Moore

Special thanks to: Palazzo Falson, Gutenberg Press Ltd., Ann-Marie Camilleri, Alessia Caruana, Roberta Grech Tabone