Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Mikhail Basmadjian, Pia Zammit.
The cold wind that had pummelled Malta from the early hours of the morning could not have been more aptly delivered as Anders Lustgarten’s incredible and soul touching play Lampedusa was brought to the St. James Cavalier with the same ferocity of spirit and damning verdict of Europe’s response to the on-going atrocity and loss of human life across Africa and the Middle-East.
I saw your words etched down in spray paint,
BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS, on a rising pavement
in St. Julian’s Bay as the sun would start to glisten
on the Valetta streets
and the isle of Comino would soon begin to heave
to the sound of vendors selling deckchairs and the sea would spoil
for a fight.
I saw your words and was puzzled by them, not by the words
for even the damaged can understand pain,
but by their placement, their specific duty in time by unknown hand