AndréMangion

Mangion was born in Pembroke in 1991. He obtained a BCom (Hons) and MSc in Economics at the University of Malta between 2013 and 2019, which proved vital for later managerial roles in the arts. Apart from being a freelance artist, Mangion worked on the Żigużajg Festival and Season Programme between 2020 and 2021; in 2022 he joined Fondazzjoni Kreattività and worked on the Spazju Kreattiv Programme. He was appointed manager of the department in 2023. One of Mangion’s earliest works at twelve years of age was a novel inspired by Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926).

Mangion has won various awards including the first edition of the Social Theatre Contest, for It-Tfajjel ta’ fuq il-Bandla (The Little Boy on the Swing) (2012), a play about Terry, a young boy on the autism spectrum who uses his condition to his advantage. Tattoo (2013), for which Mangion was awarded the Most Promising Young Author Award, was written for a competition organised by Aġenzija Żgħażagħ. Here the protagonist Frederick wakes up to find he has a tattoo on his chest – the journey of discovering how it came to be reveals something about himself he did not expect. In 2016 he produced his first show, Teatr-ejn, at Spazju Kreattiv. The English version of Raymond “Fight” Beck (2018) was staged at the Instituto Cervantes in New York in 2019, as well as adapted and performed in Malta during Altofest, in 2018. Merging theatre and boxing, it was nominated for the Most Innovative Project award of the 2017/2018 theatrical season in Malta. Mangion wrote Jesmond Kważi Għabba (Jesmond Almost Dated) in 2022, which was translated into Catalan whilst at a residency at Sala Beckett (Barcelona).  In March 2025, Drago: It-Tvenvin ta’ Tornado Tony (2022) was staged for the theatre festival Week of Slovenian Drama.

The experimental verse drama Id-Dwal Mit-Tieqa tas-Sitt Sular // Il-Warda Bla Xewk fuq iċ-Ċinta tal-Ġnien (The Lights from the Window on the Sixth Floor // The Rose on the Garden Fence with No Thorns), written in 2020 for the Cospicua Short Play Festival, was awarded Best Script, Best Actor, and Best Production. It sees two people living on opposite sides of a street falling in love with the idea of having someone there for them on the other side. And because all stories worth knowing about have a backstory, and all readers want to pry into those unlit spaces, the backstory for both was explored in L-Ewwel Antonio…. (First Antonio…) and … imbagħad Margerita (...then Margerita). These were written for the 2022 edition of the Cospicua Short Play Festival, the former being awarded Best Script, Best Actor and Best Director, the latter Best Actress. Mangion’s works have been translated into English and Catalan.

Mangion is always in search of a great story, this being one of his principles and values as a writer. To write for the sake of writing and not always to push or prove a point. This is perhaps what allows for more originality and freedom within his works, whether plays or performances – there’s nothing weighing the work down, just the joy of a story well told.