Maltese amateur theatre

Amateur companies are an essential part of the theatrical scene in Malta, and up to very recent time, professional theatre makers, actors and singers were brought over from abroad. Historical documentation shows that amateur performances were given both during the rule of the Knights of St John (1530-1798) in the Knights' auberges and at the theatre. Maltese playwrights wrote plays for amateur actors in Italian, but in the second half of the nineteenth century, plays in the Maltese language started to be produced, giving rise to a tradition of theatre in Maltese. Numerous plays in the Maltese language were printed between the 1840s and the early twentieth century, and productions in Maltese started spreading across the villages and towns, especially through parish halls. "Teatrin" as it was known, became a medium for the spread of nationalistic and other political ideas before its importance died down after World War II. After 1932, when Maltese became an official language, university scholars and authors began to write for the theatre, not because they were particularly good playwrights, but because they wanted to develop a national literature which also included theatre.

British rule over the islands (1800-1964) saw the introduction of plays in English, initially performed solely by members of the British services, generally in military compounds. An Amateur Dramatic Club was founded, as in other parts of the empire. The importance of performances in English grew steadily, and British traditional types of performances, in particular the Christmas pantomime, were adopted by the Maltese acting community and public and have become a thriving tradition up to this day, to the extent that pantomimes in Maltese are today, also very popular. Performances of Shakespeare's plays, especially in summer, are also another tradition, but the repertoire of plays in English spans both historical and contemporary authors.

Devised theatre, which started around 1969, developed more intensely in the late seventies and eighties, especially after the founding of Ateatru, a company that offered a space, located in the chapel of a former barracks, where a variety of plays, particularly original texts or translations of plays carrying a political message, were staged. The nineties saw the development of a whole series of theatre groups working on devised theatre.

In 1977, two theatre experts, Adrian Rendle and .... Cox, were brought over from England and founded the first theatre school: The Manoel Theatre Academy for Dramatic Art (MTADA). Recently, there has been a move towards professional theatre, and currently, certain actors and theatre directors are relying mainly on their art for the bulk of their income. Among these, some have opened theatre schools which provide training for both young and older persons, others teach drama in primary or secondary schools. State certification has been created at secondary and post-secondary level, and courses at graduate and postgraduate level are offered at the University of Malta and other educational institutions.

However, it still remains difficult for theatre-makers and actors to earn a living solely from performance, and often these actors have to share the stage with amateurs. The Malta Arts Council, founded in 1992, provides some financing that is awarded on a project basis. Teatru Malta, founded in 2017, as Malta's national company, defines itself as a theatre without walls, and does employ performers on a full-time basis, but hires actors according to performances. Theatre runs are short, usually lasting only one or two weekends. One notable exception has been the one-man show by Jamie Cardona: Mid-djarju ta' Student fi Skola tal-Knisja (The Diary of a Student in a Church School), that has been running for several weeks since its first performance in April 2024.