biography
Immanuel Mifsud was born on 12 September, 1967, the youngest in a working class family of eight children. He was raised in Paola, a town in the southern parts of Malta, where the majority of the population settled after the heavy air raids on the nearby dockyards in WWII..
At sixteen years of age he started writing poetry and co-founded the literary group Versarti at the New Lyceum, where he studied Maltese, English and Philosophy. He also started writing scripts for experimental theatre groups, and directed his first theatrical piece Dal-Bniedem ("This Man") at Sliema Sea Front. In 1986 he wrote and directed a double bill Lament and Qabel Calabria ("Lament and Before Calabria") for the experimental group Ateatru. Shortly afterwards he wrote and directed another experimental play, Dil-Poezija Censurata ("A Censored Poem") for Kampus, another group he cofounded at university.
During his student years he directed various plays at the university theatre, like Max Frisch's Andorra, Dario Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Federico Garcia Lorca's Yerma, and Harold Pinter's Landscape and A Kind of Alaska.
Unhappy with 'mainstream theatre', in 1989 he founded It-Teatru tal-Ghomja (Theatre of the Blind) and produced Ruzar, a collage of lines written by his favourite Maltese Romantic poet Ruzar Briffa. With Teatru tal-Ghomja he worked on a theatrical exercise about the life and times of Alma and Gustav Mahler, O Roschen Rot, which was premiered for the first edition of the Biennial Festival of Contemporary Group Theatre held in Malta in 1990. Two years later, Teatru tal-Ghomja participated in what had to be the second and last edition of this festival, with a production based on Dun Karm Psaila's poem Il-Jien u Lilhinn Minnu (The Self and Its Beyond).
The production list with Teatru tal-Ghomja also includes Pupi (Puppets) which was first performed at the launch of the left-wing education group Moviment Ghal Edukazzjoni Umana, and then performed in an extended version for Maltafest 91. A third version of Pupi was performed during a political protest held by Alternattiva Demokratika (Malta's Green Party) lobbying for reforms in the electoral system. On this latter occasion, the performance was stopped abruptly by the police.
In 1996 Immanuel Mifsud founded Teatru Marta Kwitt, another research theatre group, and directed Il-5: La Toqtolx (The Fifth: Thou Shalt Not Kill). A year later, despite the very young age of TMK's performers, the group came to the lime light with their production Mistoqsijiet lill-Qamar (Questions to the Moon), based on poetical texts by Federico Garcia Lorca. The group's reputation grew to the extent that in 1999 they produced Ilma (Water) which was premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, making TMK, together with another research group Groups For Human Encounter, the first Maltese to participate in this world known festival. Ilma was also contracted by the Ministry for Education and Culture to launch the official State festivities for the New Millennium in Malta.
In 2002, TMK and Groups for Human Encouter launched ActionBase and The Inghemar Lindh Studio, where they premiered Bakki, termed as a study of the Party Culture which had established very strong roots in Maltese youth culture. The performance won the acclaim not only of the regular theatre goers, but also of party goers and techno culture freaks. Bakki had also a strong social comment about boredom and environmental problems plaguing the island. It was also performed in Sarajevo for the International Youth Arts Festival 2002.
The last performance produced by TMK was Il-Hames Lamentazzjonijiet ta' Sara (Sara's Five Lamentations), based on the Book of Lamentations and poems from Sarajevo, commemorating the tenth anniversary since the beginning of the siege on the Bosnian capital.
Immanuel Mifsud returned to theatre in November 2004 when he directed Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, for Theatre Ad Hoc, translating the masterpiece into Maltese besides directing. Ad Hoc's The Seagull won the acclaim of theatre critics and the performance was played to full houses.
Immanuel Mifsud has also been involved in organising conferences about theatre and theatre making organised by the Mediterranean Insitute at the University of Malta. He also directed the first ever Malta International Poetry Festival organised by the Malta Arts Council in September 2004.
Immanuel Mifsud lectures Maltese literature at the University of Malta Junior College.