Smiles of a Summer Night
(Sommarnattens leende)
Year: 1955
Cast: 4 male, 7 female
Set: Interior/flexible
(Sommarnattens leende)
Year: 1955
Cast: 4 male, 7 female
Set: Interior/flexible
‘This nocturnal sunshine is just the stuff to get us through the dark midwinter.’– Financial Times on the 2008 London production of A Little Night Music
Famously re-worked as the 1973 Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical A Little Night Music, Smiles of a Summer Night is a collection of love affairs and intrigues revolving around a middle-aged lawyer, his young wife, his former mistress (a sophisticated stage actress), her lover, and his wife. They gather for a weekend at the country estate of the actress’ elderly mother, who works her own kind of magic on this ‘ménage of many.’ A parody of the ridiculous male, this is Bergman’s comic exploration of a favourite theme; men, the species which turns to women for salvation.
Notable productions (of A Little Night Music)
- Malmö Opera, Malmö 2013 (dir. Dennis Sandin)
- Théàtre du Châtelet, Paris 2010 (dir. Lee Blakeley)
- Menier Chocolate Factory/Garrick Theatre, London 2008/2009 (dir. Sir Trevor Nunn; revived on Broadway, New York, in 2009/10) (Picture above)
- Schubert Theatre/Majestic Theatre, New York 1973 (dir. Harold Prince