Maltese actor Jacob Piccinino and French actress Heloise Suire will perform their original clown show Ernesto & Bianca as the first production of the Nuna Palk children's theatre season at Teatru Salesjan.
Using a made-up language, Ernesto is on a mission to impress Bianca but the question remains whether he will succeed with his obsessively timed and perfectly laid out tea party for two.
Wearing red noses, Ernesto and Bianca have no filters for their emotions. When they do try to hide what they are feeling, what follows is a series of comic situations driven by an obsessive attempt to keep up appearances.
The performance Ernesto & Bianca knows its origins in Paris in June 2016 when Piccinino and Suire collaborated as students of the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq.
The school is world famous for the training programme it offers to some of the finest physical theatre actors and produced renowned figures on stage such as Ariane Mnouchkine of Théâtre du Soleil and Simon McBurney of Théâtre de Complicité.
After the success of the first performance in Paris, Jacob decided to continue developing the performance for young audiences with Heloise, who played the original Bianca. The new show premiered with critical acclaim during the last edition of Żigużajg festival and is currently being developed further for the Nuna Palk performance and international touring.
Ernesto & Bianca is ultimately a story about two characters who truly need each other but are too afraid to take any further steps. Their story and relationship does not need words, or comprehensible vocabulary, to be understood.
Jacob Piccinino has recently set up his own theatre company with the name of Teatru Triptiku with the aim of developing more work in Malta with international artists in contemporary clowning. He has worked with various Maltese and international directors including Mavin Khoo, Albert Marshall and Malcolm Galea and collaborated with Rubberbodies.
Heloise Suire’s physical theatre work is inspired by the formal training she received at the schools of Les Enfants Terribles and Lecoq. Most of her shows focus on social and political issues and are expressed through clowning and masks. She is currently working on her solo project for this summer that will be performed in the streets of Berlin.
Ernesto & Bianca is recommended for children above the ages of seven and will be performed at Teatru Salesjan, Sliema between March 16 and 18 at 6.30pm. Tickets available from www.tsmalta.com/tickets start at €8 and include a special offer for families with a free ticket for Nannu or Nanna.
For more information visit www.tsmalta.com/nunapalk