Malta Festival 2025: TEATR

Ultrafficion

A journey of sound and literature in front of a giant screen as a stage, set in a natural environment surrounded by trees. The piece begins when day meets darkness and lasts for the time between sunset and nightfall, setting in motion the cancellation of the subtle boundary between reality and fiction.

"ULTRAFICCIÓN nr. 1 /Fracciones de tiempo" brings the spectator on a journey among a mosaic of fragile stories from all around the World. A play without images, made up of words and sounds without a ‘stage’. Instead of a stage, there is a meadow. In the middle of nature, a screen is erected and the sound resonates and extends without limits, linking several stories that take place in the same scenic time but in different places: an improvised rave party in a forest, the passengers of a flight and their conversations shortly before the plane crashes, the journey of 80 people on a boat from Tripoli in the hope of reaching Italy.

 

Tanya Beyeler (Lugano, 1980) and Pablo Gisbert (Ontinyent, 1982) founded their company in Barcelona in 2010. From the outset, El Conde de Torrefiel has stood out for its interdisciplinary approach, combining choreography, literature, and visual and sound arts. Their performances create extraordinary landscapes and visual narratives where tensions between the individual and the collective emerge, bringing them on stage in surprising ways. This innovative approach has established the company as a pioneering reference in contemporary theater, both nationally and internationally. 

Since its inception, the company has created 13 stage productions, as well as site-specific pieces, video creations, installations, and theatrical audio guides for museums and unconventional spaces. Among their most notable works are Scenes for a Conversation After Viewing a Film by Michael Haneke, Guerrilla, La Plaza, and "ULTRAFICCIÓN nr. 1 /Fracciones de tiempo".

The artistic work of Beyeler and Gisbert has been recognized with numerous awards, including two Critics’ Awards from the City of Barcelona: in2018 for La Plaza and in 2022 for Una Imagen interior. In 2021, Tanya Beyeler received the Swiss National Prize for Performing Arts, her home country’s highest recognition in the field.

For over a decade, El Conde de Torrefiel has toured the most prestigious international theaters and live arts festivals, particularly in Europe. Their work has been presented at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, La Biennale di Venezia, the Théâtre de Vidy-Lausanne, the Wiener Festwochen in Vienna, the GREC Festival in Barcelona, the Festival d’Automne in Paris, and the Festival d'Avignon, among others. 

 

Travelling information: 

"You can attend the performances of ‘ULTRAFICCIÓN nr. 1 /Fracciones de tiempo" on your own or take the MALTANKA train – at a unique time, unavailable in the summer schedule, during the golden hour.

 

The MALTANKA train will take spectators to the Balbinka station, near the place where the performance will be unveiled. Return journey is possible by other public transport options (bus no. 184, tram no. 6, 8).

Święto Wiosny 

 The first Polish performance of the Italian group Dewey Dell, which, conquering stages worldwide with a combination of dance strategy and visual theater, enchants audiences with its illustrative, refined aesthetics and inviting energy.

"The Rite of Spring" in Dewey Dell’s interpretation is a visual feast on the eternal cycle of life and death. An engrossing performance, both in energy and form, it invites audiences to revisit Stravinsky’s canonical work, juxtaposing the revolutionary music of this ballet milestone with contemporary dance techniques—both modern and popular—alongside precise visual dramaturgy. In line with Niżyński’s intent, expressed in a letter to the composer before the legendary premiere, the Italian "Rite of Spring" is ‘something new, beautiful, and entirely different’".

In every metamorphosis and profound change of a human life, death is always by the side of life, appearing as a rite of passage or as an inward revolution. 

In the animal and plant kingdom the coexistence of life and death becomes even more literal: death is often part of the fecundation process and life swarms on decomposed carcasses. Especially among insects, seeds, and molds, death is a welcoming presence; death is an invitation to life. The cyclic regeneration of the seasons and of the fertility of the soil are not a linear journey, but a chaotic disruption of all the elements together. Spring is a time of great agitation and the terror of existing is forever blended with the sidereal joy of being.

Dewey Dell consists of sisters Teodora and Agata Castellucci, playwright and lighting director Vito Matera, and composer Demetrio Castellucci (the surname's similarity is no coincidence). The stunning costumes, whose movement and dynamics will serve as a counterpoint to the museum-like reverence of “Embodying Pasolini,” are designed by Guoda Jaruševičiūtė.