Dr Josephine Burden, a 2024 graduate from the MA Mediterranean Studies Course, was one of the performers in Silver Boom, a street theatre production in March directed by Anna Anderegg, part of the 2024 Malta Biennale.
The performance aimed to express a memory archive of space and time, foregrounding older women claiming public space in the context of the Valletta streetscape.
Aged from 65 to 87 years, the nine performers walked silently at solemn pace around the city, followed by a growing crowd of onlookers, mesmerised by the unfolding drama of pose and insight. The women became silent commentators on their experiences, contemplating personal memory, their pre-recorded life stories played aloud as they walked.
As they gazed in detached wonder, striking poses at random, the staging was astonishingly effective in focusing audience attention and perception.
Unarticulated emotional insights developed subtly, clearly communicated between performers and audience alike. This was a novel and powerful technique for transmitting a matrilineal interpretation of life experience.
Dr Burden MA (Melit) is a writer and Valletta resident, with a passionate interest in community affairs and reinterpreting public space in the city.
