Cassar Darien was appointed principal of the Manoel Theatre Academy of Dramatic Arts (MTADA) in 1981. He resigned in 1993 to become the first-ever artistic director of the National Theatre of Malta. His tenure was marked by improvements in both the physical and aesthetic aspects. The theatre became a ‘complex’ staging popular events like PoezijaPlus, Windows-on-Music, and LoggaPalk apart from its traditional calendar.
Introduced to theatre as a child by Harry Born, OP and Giuseppina Attard Montaldo, the mentors behind the Sliema-based Deporres Theatre and the Lillipuziani company respectively, Cassar Darien developed as an actor on stage, screen, and radio. As a director, he discovered a fondness for contemporary opera which included the only local stagings of Nicolo Isouard (with MTADA and the Johann Strauss School of Music), Zebra by Camilleri and Serracino-Inglott, and a remake of Pace’s I Martin in Sydney, Australia.
His extensive writing includes some fifty radioplays of which II Profezija ta’ Geremija and Dawk il-Fniek ghal Barra were awarded the Redifusion Silver and Bronze stars respectively, and several radio serials, including Id-Dinja Zghira ta’ Don Camillo. Besides a number of dramatic translations, his original works for the theatre include Il-Kuminidjant, Id-Duhhan tal-Hajja, and the trilogy based on the Jeffrey, Joyce, and John Bundy characters. His screened PBS commission for the Millennium’s Celebrations schedule was entitled Sitta w Sitta Jaghmlu Tlettax! Some of his English plays, like A Brief Respite and The Metamorphosis of a Tiny Insect, have been performed in the USA, Poland, Sweden, Germany, and Norway. His other literary contributions include regular cultural features to the media, whilst his collection of short stories was published as Din Dinja Kwadra (1979).
On radio and television, Cassar Darien has produced and presented popular cultural programmes like The Culture Cafe, Kultura a Ia Carte, The Drama of the Mediterranean, The Stories of Sherahazad, and Mil-Letteratura lnternazzjonali which was broadcast without interruption for 14 years on Radju Malta.
During the late sixties and throughout the seventies, Cassar Darien pioneered a distinctive style of nonsense humour in Maltese on radio, television, and the printed media. These contributions sported names like Nofsu Vojt u Nofsu Mimli, Ahjar Dahka minn Pillola, Cassar Darien‘s Carousel, and The Chronicle’s Korny Korner. His satirical sketches on tv’s Sibtijiet Flimkien, partnered by actress Josette Ciappara and presented by Norman Hamilton, sparked many a local controversy.
In October 1998 Cassar Darien was awarded the title of honorary doctor in Humanitarian Arts by the Russian Academy (Armenian Branch). In February 2002 he was appointed Chevalier de I’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister de la Culture, Catherine Tasca. Cassar Darien sits on the Comitato d’Onore of the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Italy.
Cassar Darien is married to Marie Therese Gauci and they have two sons, Daniel and Stanley and two daughters, Daphne Ann and Claudia.