Annie no longer exists. She died, in mysterious circumstances. We are not sure about her age or what she did for a living. We are not sure if she was married, single, in love, a journalist, unemployed, a high powered businesswoman, a prostitute.
We do know she was born in 1997, the year she died, a fully-fledged adult and fathered by the British Playwright Martin Crimp.
Crimp, like many of his generation, was fascinated with how theatre could function outside a linear model of a beginning, middle and end. He was also curious to explore themes of identity, those imagined by others, and those we give ourselves. “Attempts on her life’, is his attempt to try and eke out Annie’s existence. With nothing more than his imagination as a tool, Crimp creates 17 vignettes, exploring 17 different Annies, or is she the same one?
Like Laura Palmer in the cult TV series Twin Peaks, Annie is an enigma wrapped in a mystery and served in a conundrum.
At once, funny, melancholy, searching , and ultimately moving, since it was first devised in 1997, Attempts on her Life’ has been recognised as a contemporary classic.
For the Malta première of this play Unifaun Theatre productions has brought in American director Dave Barton. Barton has built up a reputation on the West Coast of the States, specialising in contemporary British Theatre. Working side by side with him is Sandra Mifsud, herself now well established a s a choreographer who has specialised in physical theatre allowing actors to express themselves physically as well as verbally. This production has brought together an eclectic mix of well established and relatively young actors. The result is a vivid exploration of womanhood at the turn of the 21st century.
ATTEMPTS ON HER LIFE is directed by Dave Barton and choreographed by Sandra Mifsud. It stars Lizzie Eldridge, Larissa Bonaci, Bettina Paris, Mariele Zammit, Marie Keiser-Nielsen, Ruth Borg, Antonella Mifsoode, Philip Leone-Ganado, Timmy Paris and Vladislav Ilich.
It runs at St James Cavalier on 30, 31 October, 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14 November at 8pm.
For tickets go to www.unifauntheatre.com or call 21223200.