The Seventh Seal
(Det sjunde inseglet)
Year: 1957
Cast: 6–9 male, 3 female
Set: Flexible
(Det sjunde inseglet)
Year: 1957
Cast: 6–9 male, 3 female
Set: Flexible
‘The tale engages and stalks forward with sinister inevitability.’– Woody Allen
Disillusioned knight Antonius Block and his squire Jöns return from the Crusades to the hysteria of plague-infested fourteenth-century Sweden. On the shore Block encounters Death, a pale, black-cowled figure, who informs the knight that his time has come. Suspecting the end was nigh anyway, Block proposes a game of chess, and Death allows him the time to perform one meaningful act, but only as long as he can stave off checkmate. The Seventh Seal is a piercing and powerful exploration of faith and the passage of man upon this earth.
Bergman’s arguably most famous film was based on his earlier play Wood Painting, written for acting students at Malmö City Theatre, and even the screenplay adapts well to the stage.
Notable productions
- City Theatre, Uppsala 2018 (dir. Hugo Hansén)
- Národni divadlo, Brno 2013 (dir. Jírí Nekvasil)
(Picture above)
- Everyman Theatre, Cardiff 2009 (dir. Marie-Claire Costley)