The cost of living between desire and expectations

Director Tyrone Grima brings Terence Rattigan’s classic drama to the Maltese stage, examining loneliness, love as well as the gap between legal progress and societal acceptance.

Speaking to MaltaToday, Grima says the struggle between personal freedom and society’s expectations remain far from resolved. His Maltese-language production of Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea (Il-Baħar Ikħal Skur) explores the emotional cost of living between the life one is expected to lead and the life that one desires.

Performed in Maltese using the translation of Immanuel Mifsud, the production revisits Rattigan’s 1952 play through the lens of late-1960s society, a period marked by shifting attitudes towards women and minority groups. For Grima, the historical setting offers more than just a glimpse into the past, it also exposes tensions that continue to shape contemporary Malta.

“Although set in London, the dynamics in this production resonate so much to a contemporary Maltese audience,” he says.

At the centre of the play is our protagonist Hester Collyer, a woman caught between the security of an established life and her yearning for passion and purpose. She is caught between her husband, Judge Collyer who offers her a life of security but without passion, while Freddie, a former RAF pilot, cannot commit to a relationship with her. Over the course of one day, an unexpected connection with Dr Miller, a disgraced former doctor, offers her a different perspective on life and suffering.

Grima stresses that her situation is not an isolated one. He argues that the playwright’s strength lies in his ability to portray characters whose circumstances may differ but whose struggles with entrapment are universally recognisable.

Director Tyrone Grima

“Each character, even the ones that appear for a scene, are so well-written,” he says. “At some point in life, we have been entrapped in a situation, not knowing which is the right choice, if there is a right choice at all.”

Instead of passing judgement on Hester or those around her, Rattigan presents a litany of competing needs, fears and expectations. Grima says this complexity is what makes the play compelling, allowing audiences to consider its dilemmas from multiple perspectives.

The decision to stage the work in Maltese, using Mifsud’s translation, is central to this approach. Grima says that a translator must be someone who understands that translating theatre involves more than finding equivalent words—it requires placing a text within sociocultural context that preserves its original meaning while speaking to contemporary audiences.

The late-1960s setting reinforces that connection. It was a period when laws were being introduced to improve the rights for women and LGBTIQ people, even as traditional attitudes continued to shape everyday life (in the United Kingdom.)

For Grima the difference between legal progress and social acceptance remains relevant. “The tension between de jure, what the law says, and de facto, what society perceives, is at the core of this particular production,” he says.

Grima says he sees similar tension in Malta today, warning against the assumption that legislative advances necessarily mean that everyone is equally accepted or protected.

“I think the play will make the Maltese audience reflect further on how sensitive we still need to be about minorities and people who suffer oppression and entrapment,” he says. “Sometimes we get a bit too comfortable, thinking that now everyone is catered for and OK. In reality, this is a far cry from the truth.”

Society’s margins

An important relationship in the play is between Hester and Dr Miller, two characters who find themselves on society’s margins. Grima says despite changes in the law, queer people and women continued to face exclusion and prejudice.

Their friendship offers a chance for both characters to lower their defences and confront their vulnerabilities. Having both experienced loneliness and frustration in different ways, they understand what each other is feeling.

“Their friendship allows them to pull down masks, be raw and touch the wounds that need to be touched in order for healing to begin,” Grima says. He describes their final scenes as among the most moving in the play.

The production also handles other difficult subjects, including suicide, emotional dependence and the search for meaning. Grima says that handling these themes responsibility required a particularly attention to the wellbeing of the actors, who spend weeks immersing themselves in emotional demanding characters.

He says expansive table work helped the cast understand “the motivations behind each character’s behaviour within the society they inhabit.”

Rehearsals were structured gradually, with opportunities for rest and de-rolling, allowing performers to step away from their characters.

Grima’s training as a drama therapist helped guide him. While specialists in psychology, gender studies and queer studies were brought in to provide an additional perspective on the production’s sensitive themes.

There are no villains

Grima says, the intention was never to encourage audiences to love or hate particular characters, but to understand them. “There are no villains in this play, but likewise perhaps there are no heroes.”

Despite the serious subject manner, there is also room for humour. This includes avoiding gratuitous depictions of distress in favour of a more nuanced exploration of human experience.

Grima says he sees The Deep Blue Sea as a reflection on the forces that continue to constrain people, whether through social prejudice, destructive relationships or struggles with mental wellbeing.

“The deep blue sea is still present whether we are talking about women, queer people, toxic relationships and mental well-being… And perhaps, up to a certain point, we are all still caught within the force of this deep blue sea.”

The Deep Blue Sea (Il-Baħar Ikħal Skur) will be on from 30, 31 October and 1,6,7,8 November 2026 at Spazju Kreattiv, in Valletta.