At the end of August, through the collaboration of the Valletta 2018 Foundation, audiences could feast their eyes – and stomachs  – on an interactive theatrical experience called L-Ikla t-Tajba. PAUL COCKS spoke to NONA CIOBANU, the director of this unique theatrical performance that left the audience with an appetite for more.

What is L-Ikla t-Tajba? 

In my research about food a fascinating character that lived in France (1758-1837) popped out as the main character of the performance. He was the founder of French gastronomic writing and the world’s first restaurant critic, the first one who had encouraged people to deepen their knowledge of the Art of dining. His name is Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de La Reynière. His connections  with theatre in a performative  way, as well as a critic, inspired  him to create spectacular  banquets in which the served  food had, at the same time,  artistic, social and political commentary and implications.  Grimod observed that the  true gourmand was always  aware that the gastronomic art  encompassed, “all questions  of moral philosophy, all societal considerations as well  . . . [which art] only seems  superficial to those of common  minds, who see in cooking only  pots, and in dishes served only  a dinner.”  

Another focus I had for the  performance was coming from  the fascinating blend of myths  and legends of Malta and Gozo that have travelled or were  cooked in the Mediterranean  (or Mare Nostrum) basin pot, by the history and the  contemporary reality of this  space with all its complex  dimensions. We have tried  through our research and  improvisations to re-tell and  re-invent some theatrical and  food maps that surpass time  and space, using the poetry  and the new texts written for  this performance by Immanuel  Mifsud. The minimalist set  added a particular dimension  to the magical Gozitan salt  pans of Xwejni, as well as the  visuals created by Peter Kosir.  

What attracted you to this  project?  

The fascination for salt in  our very personal salt pans,  not only of the ones of Xwejni.  Everything that was given by  the sea and by the strong wind  that were our very special  guests at the performances.  The complex and sometimes  distorted topic of food. The  poetry of Immanuel. The  musicality of Gozo island. The  beauty of Maltese language. In  the end, all these together with  the great presence and work of  the actors, almost as dancers,  have created quite a rich and  meaningful texture for us and  for our Gozitan journey.

I do love poetry and I have  the need from time to time  to bring it in a spectacular  form. I had done quite a few of  performances where I created a  scenario and used the poetry in  the form of a dialogue. For one,  for instance, called Orpheus  or How To Undress Your  Feathers (with the writings  of the beloved Romanian  poet and writer Gellu Naum) we got five stars in The Independent Newspaper from  Dublin. Poetry is giving me the freedom to access many unseen and playful  layers of reality. Immanuel’s  poetry is revealing a very rich,  profound and direct universe. I had chosen a few poems  through the readings with the  actors and I had a few talks  with Manuel where I came  with the suggestion that he will  write two monologues and one  scene for Grimod. In one of  them he had beautifully retold  an ancient tale from my place,  about salt, in another scene he  created a surrealist atmosphere  full of humour inspired by the  local recipes and ingredients. I was interested to hear the very personal stories of  the actors, their concerns  and reflections regarding  food. Then, together with  Immanuel’s poems and new  writings for this performance  I was weaving like a tapestry  - a story called The Gozo  Gourmand Diary of Grimod.  Geographically speaking, one  can say that Malta and Gozo  are at the beginning of Europe.  Or by the end of it, it depends  how you want to look at it.  

We used the natural salt  pans and pools prolonged by the constructed set done by  Peter, as a decayed house just  unveiled from the waves of the  sea, and we created in the three  pools the living spaces: kitchen, dining room and living room. Two of them were partly filled  with water, so the image of the  archaeological house plan was extrapolated into a new, almost  surrealistic dimension. Then  part of the food from the table  “became “alive in Penelope’s  dream and the family start  creating another layer of the  story where the animals are the  carriers of our recent history  as well as of mythological  elements. The masks of the  rabbit, pig, octopus, bull, cat,  eel and jellyfish-medusa were  a collection of daily, historical,  social and political threads  interwoven into a dream carpet  on which the last guest - The  Empty Chair (with its clear  European shape of the sitting  part and being able to walk by  itself via a motor) will arrive. Obviously this last guest at the  table is a symbol. One of the possible connotations of this chair is directly linked with my  country that will occupy in a  few months the “CHAIR” of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. A European Union that faces  some deep rearrangements  within its mould and a big  migrant crisis. In the past two  years we, Romanians, have become known for the street  manifestations of up to six hundred thousand people in the country, at once, and by the direct participation of our President in this fight against the strong corruption that exists at the moment in my country. I am deeply ashamed, like never after 1989, of the two parties that at the moment are forming our government and I consider that their leaders should not have the right to represent my country at this point in any European context.  

The abuses and corruption are distorting and destroying mankind’s values in many countries at this moment, and we have the duty to strongly oppose that this will happen. 

Have you encountered any problems working with Maltese artists and the  

organisers? 

Working with a group of eight actresses and two actors I was quite interested about how the feminine strings will create the vibration and the music of this universe around the character Grimod. Stressing and requiring the directness of the poems and their sensuality we had created almost polyphonic moments through repetitiveness and interweaving verses. I could work in this way with a very sensitive and committed group of actors that had the  openness and curiosity, the  courage and the joy to express  and experiment in a beautiful  way all the material we were  enriching on our table. The process of rehearsals was very  intense and short, considering  the fact that in less than five  weeks we had to create a new piece that was equally  poetic, visual and physical  in a site specific enviroment. Working with the actors at the beginning of our rehearsals in  an intimate space like a studio gave the group the trusted  substance needed in the big  outdoor space.  

This was a truly challenging  project for Teatru Malta, as well as for our whole artistic  team. I strongly believe that  Sean Buhagiar, the artistic  director, and his team can  create a strong National  Theatre Company if there is  a continuous awareness and  attention to the needs of the  artists and society. 

I was impressed  by the seriousness,  hard working and  sensitivity of all  actors. And yes,  there is quite a lot  of common ground  for continuing  the collaboration  between the two  countries

In your opinion, is Valletta  living up to its status as  European Capital of Culture for  2018? What would you have  liked to see more of? 

Unfortunately I did not have much time to follow the  cultural programme of Valletta  2018. I hope and believe that  there are good projects and  programmes that involve some  major educational and cultural  components that can be  continued in the coming years.  I guess one of the important  issues for a cultural capital is  to enrich and spread in a wider  context than the national one,  the awareness on the long  term of both the participants  and audience for the essential  threads of the mankind values. 

In 1996, together with Iulian  Baltatescu, you set up TOACA,  a non-governmental non profit organisation focusing on  contemporary art and hoping  to serve the community  through art and culture. Was  TOACA a success? And how do  you see the model developing  further in the years to come?  

In 1996 I had created my  own company Toaca, and  since 1995 I am part of Teatrul  Mic Company in Bucharest,  a repertory state theatre of 42  actors. I continued all these  years to work in both ways  and I have tried to influence  and change as much as I  could some parts that were  not functioning either in the  independent field or in the  state belonged one.  

Actually, the first Toaca’s  project was a theatre piece I directed at MITP Valletta, in 1996. It was called Dorde  (based on a Romanian myth)  and it was collaboration  between Toaca, Teatru Anon and Odd&Even Theatre  Company from Moscow. At  the time Toaca was established,  it was quite a pioneer on the  independent scene in Romania.  For seven years we had a studio in the centre of  Bucharest, we had wonderful  educational and artistic  projects addressed mainly at  young artists and the audience  and we had fights with the  corrupt politicians that took  over the building at the moment the potential of the  space was revealed through  our projects. We lost the space  through falsified contracts by  the Mayor of the 3rd District of  Bucharest and his Council but  we did not lose our creativity,  hope and joy. And I was  inspired in some of the projects  I had done by the corrupted  figures I have met at that time. I have learned that Toaca is not  a building but a state of mind  and freedom. We are doing  from time to time projects  within the frame of Toaca, but  I have mainly focused lately on what I could create as an artist  and not as a producer. 

However I continue to strongly encourage the young  artists to come together and to  create a solid common voice  that will give the promises of  the changes for what is not  functioning within a society.  

Can Romanian and Maltese  artists find enough common  ground to encourage greater  cooperation between the two  countries in the future? 

It was a pleasure for me to  work with the actors from  different contemporary  

theatre companies, like The  Rubberbodies Collective,  Santwarju and Teatru Anon (I  knew and worked before just  with Anon). I was impressed  by the seriousness, hard  working and sensitivity of all  actors. And yes, there is quite  a lot of common ground for  continuing the collaboration  between the two countries.  Personally I consider that in  the future, this project about  food will have a natural need of  continuing and developing into  something like a second phase.  

Do you envisage working in  Malta again? 

Being the second time that  I am working in Malta, I  certainly know that I have a  beautiful connection with this  space and culture, and most  probably I will come back.