[On Twilight Games]
Bergman’s only ballet was written in collaboration with Carl-Gustaf Kruuse. They also wrote the programme text together.
About the text
The ballet itself, about the Swedish king Gustaf III among others, was written for the Malmö City Theatre, where Kruuse was the head of the ballet. The script itself was not preserved (as far as we know! If you have any information to the contrary, please contact us at info@ingmarbergman.se).
The games we play tonight under the City Theatre’s newly-sewn twilight sky aren’t meant to raise any eyebrows. Nor will one find any hidden meanings, symbols or secret instructions.
The thread tying the four small novelettes together is not thematic, but formal: each contains a contrast, and each takes place in a certain time period. The only decoration is twilight.
The music is inspired variously by Bellman, the great Romantics, the Skillingtrycksvisan and Studentsången.
The objective: forty minutes of uncomplicated merriment, an appeal to the audience to join in. Our own joy to be able to write, compose and choreograph with our own people.
Sunday nights will henceforth be ballet nights – a new feature we’ve stolen from the big European theatres and which we hope will eventually take a place in the public consciousness as an institution and tradition. These ballet nights will change up the program as often as possible, interspersing the old with the new. Hopefully a repertoire will eventually take form, as well as a genuinely interested ballet audience.
So it is that we bow to the heads of the theatre, who have given us this chance; we bow towards the Öresund, where inspiration glitters on the horizon; and last but not least – indeed, most of all – we bow to you, our cherished audience, and wish you a warm welcome to our half well-mannered, half wild games.
Carl-Gustaf Kruuse Ingmar Bergman