Playwright submitted play about Daphne’s murder a year before it happened
The chairman of the Manoel Theatre yesterday revealed that months before Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed, a noted Maltese playwright, Mario Philip Azzopardi, submitted a play entitled Min qatel lil Daphne? [Who killed Daphne?].
Dr Michael Grech is a lawyer by profession and also serves as chair of the Manoel Theatre, a post he has occupied since 2010.
He was appearing before the board of inquiry which is investigating the murder of the blogger.
He told the inquiry that some years ago, the theatre had sought to encourage Maltese-language plays, as these were lacking. The Finance Ministry was also involved and a deal was signed.
The deal meant the Manoel Theatre got €20,000 to stage plays by Staġun, a company run by Mario Philip Azzopardi.
Scripts submitted as part of the deal go through a first reading by the artistic director and chairman and are then vetted by other members, Grech said, with a final decision taken by the board.
He told the board that the play was definitely submitted before Caruana Galizia was killed, probably in 2016.
“I got a call from the CEO telling me about the play. I immediately told him to inform Azzopardi that it was rejected,” Grech says.
Grech says he rejected the idea out of hand. “The title alone sufficed,” he says. “It incited violence and was certainly not appropriate for the national theatre.”
Grech says that he did not even want to have a look at the script.
Azzopardi later went on to be appointed the Artistic Director of Valletta18.