About
“Sometimes I’m afraid of this play.”
Malta: Catholic kitsch, golden sun, deep blue sea, Eurovision - and a blanket ban on abortion.
Propelled by three years of interviews with anonymous contributors and their own lived experience, actors and activists Marta and Davinia interrogate Malta’s restrictions on the freedom of women.
What does it mean for your home to boast the world’s most progressive LGBTQIA rights, leading transgender laws – and a population that is almost unanimously anti-choice?
A rallying cry from award-winning Chalk Line Theatre.
Quotes & Reviews
Reviews for Blanket Ban
“It makes theatre seem essential when it so often doesn’t.” Lyn Gardner, Stage Door
★★★★★ “Hard-hitting, and painfully eye-opening.” Theatre Weekly
★★★★★ “A heart-shatteringly brilliant piece of theatre.” The Skinny
★★★★ “It seems impossible to leave Blanket Ban without a sense of the great peril of the lack of abortion access in Malta – and of course, across the western world.” WhatsOnStage
The Company
The Company
Performers & Writers
Marta Vella & Davinia Hamilton
Co-Directors
Sam Edmunds & Vikesh Godhwani
Set & Costume Design
Isabella Van Braeckel
Video Editor
Patricio Soto-Aguilar
Dramaturg
Stephanie Dale
About Chalk Line Theatre
Chalk Line Theatre is a multi-award-winning company based in Luton, who tour work both nationally and internationally. They are Associate Artists at Next Generation Youth Theatre and a Graduate Emerging Company of New Diorama.
The company is run by Co-Artistic Directors Sam Edmunds and Vikesh Godhwani. Chalk Line’s work is both thematically and visually ambitious, receiving great critical acclaim on their approach to contemporary theatre-making. As a company they look to experiment with form, by tackling socio-political subject matters in an innovative way that is ultimately challenging yet entertaining.
Blanket Ban was written by Davinia Hamilton and Marta Vella, following two R&Ds supported by Artsadmin, artsdepot, Break The Taboo Malta, Abortion Support Network, Abortion Rights and The Women’s Rights Foundation.
Winner of New Diorama and Underbelly's Untapped Award 2022, supported by Methuen Drama