Theatre, 1954

Wood Painting

First official production of the one-act play that was to develop from a student exercise at Malmö City Theatre to the film The Seventh Seal (1957).
'The play offers a sampling of various views on death. It is creepy and macabre, while maintaining an element of the comical, a humour built out of sympathy.'
Claes Hoogland

About the production

Bengt Ekerot, Death in the film version, plays the knight, and Gunnar Björnstrand plays Jöns, the knight's squire for the first time of three. No recording has been preserved.

In his presentation of the author, Claes Hoogland described Wood Painting as 'a medieval game in the shadow of the plague'.

Sources

  • The Ingmar Bergman Archives.
  • Per Arne Tjäder, Fruktan, medkänsla och kritisk distans: Den västerländska dramateorins historia, (Studentlitteratur, 2000).
  • Margareta Wirmark (red.), Ingmar Bergman: Film och teater i växelverkan, (Stockholm: Carlssons Bokförlag, 1996).

Collaborators

  • Nine Christine Jönsson, The girl
  • Gunnar Björnstrand, Jöns
  • Bengt Ekerot, The knight
  • Eva Dahlbeck, The witch
  • Jan-Erik Lindqvist
  • Jane Friedmann, Maria
  • Gunnar Sjöberg, The actor
  • Ulla Sjöblom, Lisa
  • Birgitta Hellerstedt, Karin
  • Ingmar Bergman, Author