Terra Verunt is an interdisciplinary, immersive, participatory, contemporary dance/theatre work inspired by the mass migration of Maltese children to Australia in the 1950s and 1960s, and the exile of Spanish children in 1937 escaping from the civil war. It also reflects on the current state of affairs in relation to the Syrian, Ethiopian and Libyan children who arrive on Malta while crossing the Mediterranean, without identification, and who are subsequently forced into detention.

With an original soundtrack and live music interventions by Renzo Spiteri (UK/Malta), choreography by Lucía Piquero (Spain) and dramaturgy by Erica Muscat (Malta), this contemporary work follows the story of migrant children on a journey from or to their migrant home. It speaks of the excitement and trepidation in leaving family and home for a new land and, for the returning migrant, the weight borne from years of being severed from their home country.
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Terra Verunt offers an opportunity for the audience to “live” through and identify with its own version of this journey. This is an experiential work with actors and dancers filling in the roles of the young migrants with a soundtrack that slowly submerges the audience into a world mirroring the current migrant experience. Audience members may “play” and integrate with the “children” to a degree that is up to each individual to decide, moving across spaces, without being limited to a singular story-line but engaging in a multi-directional approach to create their own unique journeys.​

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The event ran over a 24 hour period with the first show opening on Friday June 30th 2017 at 8pm. Each show was just over 45 minutes long and a total of 8 performances were held between the opening performance and the final performance on 1st July 2017, 8pm. It would not have been possible without the incredible stamina and dedication shown by the artists.

This project was a labour of love for all involved, with themes that were, and still are, very close to our hearts. The idea was to use art as a vehicle of dialogue, offering a distinct experience that would allow the audience members to see what they often see in the news but in this occasion as an actual human situation. The close presence of the bodies, the invitation to join in, and the atmosphere created at Splendid would submerge the audience and be an opportunity to relate differently to the ordeal of migrants, especially children.