Six Characters in Search of an Author
One year and one week after The Crown Bride, Bergman is back at Malmö City Theatre, this time with Luigi Pirandello's intricate meta-theatrical play.
About the production
Pirandello's drama about a play rehearsal, which is interrupted by six characters with their lives portrayed, is set in the 1920s. Bergman antedated the rehearsed play to the turn of the last century; the reason being that the old-fashioned costumes helped the audience distinguish between the actors in rehearsal and the six interrupting characters dressed in modern clothing.
Bergman's production of Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author was his major success during his six-year term at Malmö City Theatre. The audience reportedly followed the performance in breathless silence. Reviewers singled out two aspects in particular: the director's faithful reading of Pirandello's text and the high quality of acting 'not found on any other stage in Sweden'.
Bergman returned to this piece 14 years later, staging it on a considerably larger stage at the National Theatre in Oslo.
Sources
- The Ingmar Bergman Archives.
- Birgitta Steene, Ingmar Bergman: A Reference Guide, (Amsterdam University Press, 2005).
- Henrik Sjögren, Lek och raseri, Ingmar Bergmans teater 1938-2002, ( Stockholm: Carlsson Bokfölag, 2002).
Henrik Sjögren wrote:
In Pirandello's intricate play marrying illusion with reality, Bergman allowed scenographer Per Falk to frame the stage as in a Baroque theatre peepshow, with a stucco-deck of gold and white and a kerosene lamp ramp. A sort of show of Russian dolls on stage. The old-fashioned backdrop enabled the audience to adjust to the suspense between the stage's illusion and the theatre's sparce reality, as there was no curtain in place beforehand. Within the frame of the mirror, one's gaze once again encountered the bare stage: an empty floor and naked walls without coulisse.
Collaborators
- Åke Fridell, The father
- Aino Taube, The mother
- Gertrud Fridh, The stepdaughter
- Folke Sundquist, The son
- Nine-Christine Jönsson, The boy
- Marie-Louise Åkerlund, The girl
- Gunnel Edlund, Madame Paix
- Benkt-Åke Benktsson
- Birgitta Hellerstedt, The primadonna
- Arnold Sjöstrand, Actor 1
- Judith Frithiof, Actor 2
- Mona Dan-Bergman, Actor 2
- Åke Åkerlund, Actor 3
- Nils Eklund, Actor 3
- Harriet Andersson
- John Alvar Holm
- Björn Bjelfvenstam
- Sven Ahlström
- Nils Nygren
- Lillemor Jonsson
- Thore Lindqvist
- Carl Liljeholm
- Luigi Pirandello, Author
- Ingmar Bergman, Director
- Per Falk, Designer