I have a faint but vivid memory of being a cheeky toddler, bold enough to ask the great Francis Ebejer in my mother’s small kitchen why he blinked so emphatically every few seconds. Nervous tic, he replied. I also remember him bringing jam heart biscuits — a treat I looked forward to.
Francis always visited alone. He was a friend of my parents, who, though honest with him about his plays and affectations, genuinely enjoyed his company in our Birkirkara apartment. Even as a young child, he left an impression. I think I might have liked him too.
It’s a shame I wasn’t older, unable to converse with him before he passed in 1993. He might have taught me a thing or two about writing — the one passion I can’t let go of in this lifetime. What fascinates me most is that he wrote many of his novels in English. He was the first and the best Maltese to ever do it.
Yesterday, I went to see Għażiż Francis at the Manoel Theatre, a play originally staged in 2007 as part of the Malta International Arts Festival, revived by director Peter Busuttil to commemorate the centenary of Ebejer’s birth in 1925.
It’s difficult to pigeonhole the play into a particular theatrical style or genre just as it is difficult to describe Francis Ebejer’s oeuvre with one categorising label. Għażiż Francis is essentially a celebration of the playwright’s life using Ebejer’s very own works, be it essays like The Bilingual Writer as Janus, or poems, or plays.
It isn’t so much as written by Marco Galea as it is weaved. Galea chose specific pieces of Ebejer’s writing to patch together to form the play Għażiż Francis, temporally contextualised by some newspaper headlines during Ebejer’s life. Galea’s arrangement is deeply intelligent — there’s nothing fortuitous in what he chose. The pieces are deliberate so that they both portray the fluidity and versatility of Ebejer’s playscripts as well as Ebejer’s personal life.
This is the genius of Għażiż Francis: the play reveals the man as the artist and the artist as the man without so much as an added piece of fiction or testimony from Galea himself. It is clear that Marco Galea knows the playwright’s works very intimately but knew the man behind them just as well.
What you therefore get on the stage is a mixture of comedy with an underbelly of bitterness, eulogistic orations about Malta, political commentary, absurdism, Ebejer’s intellectual posturing in the form of Boulevard and Vum-Barala-Zungare, and his absolute genius and his pain.
The 90-minute play centres around two individuals who knew Ebejer well: Pino Scicluna and Peter Busuttil (the latter now directing). They played themselves in 2007 when Għażiż Francis was first staged. This time, the roles are played by Davide Tucci and Sean Borg respectively. Throughout the play, Tucci and Borg also play the roles of some of Ebejer’s characters like Il-Ġahan ta’ Binġemma and Menz. This metatheatrical aspect is important because it demands the audience to ask: which is real, which is a play? The lines are blurred meaningfully because Ebejer’s plays are, after all, very personal. What is art? What is reality? In Ebejer, they are both one, even when his art is at its most absurd.
Davide Tucci was wholly mesmerizing — loud, funny, compelling, his facial expressions and delivery especially moving in his portrayal of Ġahan, capturing Malta’s spirit. I could not take my eyes off of him.
Sean Borg, especially when playing the role of Menz, came off as vulnerable and small, a man in search of home. His acting here was solid and powerful.
Peter Busuttil’s direction was fun and compelling. 90 minutes did not feel as long. What was really surprising to me as I watched Għażiż Francis unfold was how easily Malta was portrayed with all its warts and gems. The play offers a panoramic, authentic view of Malta, neither pandering nor politically motivated. No part of the direction or writing is yawn-inducing same old, same old. No element is cringeworthy. Walking out of the Manoel Theatre, I felt a rare pride in being Maltese.
Every part of Għażiż Francis felt right: from the props to the lighting, and the music by Andrew Vella Zarb and James Crockford.
At the end of the play, Peter Busuttil announced that the plan is to stage Għażiż Francis various times and at different locations next year. What good news! Għażiż Francis is a stunning homage to the peak of Maltese theatre. I urge you to go and watch it. There is a lot to learn about Malta, about art, and about what Maltese expression can achieve when done authentically and with passion.
Celebrating the first ever National Book Prize winner, Għażiż Francis is a beautiful play, a triumph and a testament to the possibilities of Maltese performance.
Culture Editor
Author and Literary Critic
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