The Malta Independent on Sunday
Poets, poems and performers for a ‘Night of Folly, Fantasy, and Feeling’
The Save Valletta’s Skyline Appeal fundraising continues with Folly, Fantasy & Feeling – a poetry performance at the Teatru Salesjan on 27 February. We speak to who heads the production team and will also compère the evening with Nicholas De Piro
Lucy Paterson came to Malta eight years ago after having worked on the business side of Opera Holland Park. Once in Malta, Lucy read for a Masters at MEDAC, the diplomatic school within the University of Malta. Lucy is still involved in the arts, as can be attested by her involvement with the Save Valletta’s Skyline appeal, an effort to raise money to fund vital restoration work to the tower, spire and structure of the iconic St Paul’s Pro-Cathedral in Valletta.
It is a charity that is very close to Lucy’s heart. “Valletta is a beautiful city,” she says. “We wanted the appeal to have a broader resonance to architectural heritage rather than simply the St Paul’s Pro-Cathedral Restoration Appeal, so we called the campaign Save Skyline.”
Folly, Fantasy and Feeling is the latest in a series of eclectic events that have been organised to attract different audiences and raise funds for the appeal. And Lucy is happy to report that the appeal is progressing well. “The Save Valletta Skyline Restoration Appeal has worked enormously hard over the last 15 months and, through a combination of fund-raising events, donations from several individual donors, major trusts and businesses in Malta and abroad, has raised over one €1 million towards the Appeal.”
Lucy currently has her hands full with the organisation of the Folly, Fantasy, and Feeling soirée. “I work closely with Nicholas and am a general ‘sounding board’ for the overall programme,” she explains. “Apart from co-compèring the evening, my main contribution is putting together the production team. We arrange sponsorship (the event is sponsored by Towngate Properties), theatre hire, distribution of tickets and logistics for the evening itself, as well as preparing marketing materials and maintaining the Facebook page. The Salesians team are also great to work with, it is such a pretty theatre! We organised a similar event last year, Notions, Nostalgia and Nonsense, so the team is tried and tested and works well together.”
Two of the stalwarts of the evening are the indefatigable and extremely colourful aforementioned de Piro, and beloved Valletta’s heart surgeon Alex Manché, and working with them has been fascinating for Lucy. “Nicholas and Alex are renaissance men. They are incredibly multi-talented but also very low key and modest, which is the best combination. They have no agenda other than to perform an entertaining evening for a good cause. Working with them is an inspiration and great fun… and everyone is laughing so much!”
These poetry soirées are unusual, unexpected and hugely entertaining evenings. Taking Maltese poets, poems and performances about and associated with Malta, they mix them up with beautiful music and some dance. The repertoire includes wonderfully sensitive poems of Coleridge, Professor Joe Friggieri and Philip Farrugia Randon, next to the comic poems by de Piro himself and Margaret Clerici. This year the line-up also includes a couple of opera arias.
So, what can audiences expect? “The soirée is an old-fashioned evening, in the best possible sense,” Lucy says. Our main aim is for the audience to raise money for a good cause and to leave the theatre with a smile on their face.” ‘ Folly, Fantasy & Feeling’ will be performed for one night only at the Teatru Salesjan, Sliema from 6.30 until 9pm, on Wednesday 27 February. Patrons are entitled to free parking. Tickets are available from the Teatru Manoel website at booking.teatrumanoel.com.mt/Event/12 384/. For more information visit https://www.facebook.com/events/2 164335747139799/