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Karl Schembri
Theatre critics, playwrights, academics and the son of the late author Francis Ebejer are outraged by the decision taken by the Arts Council to scrap the drama award given in honour of the undisputed father of modern Maltese theatre.
Announced through a press release last week, the council’s decision is to stop the Francis Ebejer Award for Maltese playwrights and grant instead an annual award to an original play that would have been performed in Malta that year. The prize, according to the press release, will be officially called ‘Drama Award – Malta Council for Culture and the Arts’.
“Whoever took this decision understands nothing, absolutely nothing, about the arts and theatre,” said Damian Ebejer. “They should be ashamed.”
When contacted Friday, Arts Council Chairman Prof. Joe Friggieri said the new name on the press release was used to signify a change in regulations and to start a new award. But amending the press release, he said: “We’ll keep it named after Ebejer. Take my word for it. It will be called Francis Ebejer Award – Malta Council for Culture and the Arts.”
Apart from being deemed offensive and in bad taste towards the memory of the world acclaimed Maltese playwright from Dingli who died in 1993, nominated for the Nobel prize in literature, the original announcement fuelled condemnation from academics, playwrights and theatre critics who said the council will be judging only plays already performed, written by well connected and established authors, excluding altogether new blood.
In contrast with the Francis Ebejer Award, the council will not fund the production of the winning play because to be eligible in the first place it would have to be already performed by drama companies.
Prof. Friggieri said the council started funding the summer Dramafest for emerging playwrights and theatre groups, while the new award would be mainly for established authors.
“There is a whole new festival that we’ve dedicated to new playwrights,” Prof. Friggieri said. “It is unfair to have an up-and-coming playwright, with perhaps a kind of experimental theatre which may not even be scripted, competing with the established ones for the award.”
But while the plays competing for the Francis Ebejer Award in the last couple of editions were in the vast majority of very poor standard, stakeholders in the cultural scene decry the new award’s criteria.
“It is clear they are not interested in funding and promoting original Maltese theatre,” said Marco Galea, the President of L-Akkademja tal-Malti and historian of Maltese theatre. “Instead of committing themselves to produce the winning play, they will now find it readymade, investing nothing. They’re no longer interested in promoting something new.”
A colleague of his lecturing in Maltese at the University Junior College said this will be the death knell to young budding playwrights and slammed the council for subverting the reason behind the prize.
“This will deny the budding playwrights of any rightful exposure for the works they write,” said Mario Cassar. “It means their plays will remain shelved. The very raison d’être of the award, that of discovering new works and playwrights, is being subverted, as now you would need the contacts and money to produce your play for it to be eligible.”
It is also unclear whether the council will be giving the award for the performance or to the playwrights. Prof. Friggieri said the regulations still had to be published.
Established playwright Oreste Calleja criticised the decision because “only a small, exclusive clique of well-known playwrights” will be considered for the award.
“This is no solution to the fact that the plays submitted for the Francis Ebejer Award degenerated in the last years,” he said. “If you award scripts that are already produced on stage then you are not encouraging new scripts and newcomers have no chance.”
Even Ebejer’s son agreed that the previous award did not yield scripts of quality in the last years but the new one would not solve this problem.
Calleja said: “It’s just based on the assumption that new original Maltese plays will be performed, and if they are, they can be awarded. But look at this season’s theatre calendar, there are barely two new works to be performed. There is no initiative, no drive from the council. Abroad the arts council would invest in plays in progress, get established directors and script writers to help the new ones perfect their works and get feedback along the way from the audience. Here they’re just interested in works that are already produced.”
Here again, Prof. Friggieri said he was giving his word that the council would still finance new plays if they are deemed of quality.
“I give you my word that if a script is sent to the council by anyone and is judged as a good one by a jury, we would make everything possible to get it staged, including funding it. We never refused to fund a play we deemed to be of potential.”
But the Akkademja president said: “In what capacity is he saying that? There is no competition and no jury to accept scripts, or any call for scripts, any longer. Who will send a script to him now and why? They’re just saying we don’t care about new playwrights who don’t have the money and the resources to stage their plays.”
According to the press release, “the previous award can now be replaced with a more dynamic scheme that reflects the demands and aspirations of current Maltese generations. The Premju Drama – Kunsill Malti ghall-Kultura u l-Arti is being established to further encourage the production of high quality playwriting in the Maltese Islands.”
Another new development is that even new plays written by Maltese in other languages, as well as translations, will be considered but works in the Maltese language will be given preference.
Mario Cassar said: “The new contest, as suggested, is in itself a good and laudable idea, but it should not be launched at the expense of the Francis Ebejer prize.”
Oreste Calleja described it as “at best, a deceptive trick”.
“Malta has a theatre ad hoc where local companies who once used to put on Maltese drama have disappeared, new Maltese writers have all but disappeared, Maltese drama is dead as far as having any input into society,” Calleja said. “Token gestures like this are empty gestures, at best a deceptive trick, at best.”
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt
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