Ingmar Bergman focused on exploring the inside of the human psyche in an extreme situation in his art. He focused on people isolated from the outside world. His characters were locked on an “island” – family relations, countries in a state of emergency.
Locked within four walls, we test our bonds with others. We look at the relations through a magnifying glass, those relations that we were fleeing from in the everyday affairs. Does a mandatory confrontation with the other person and with yourself lead to insight? To madness? Will we see each other “Through a Glass Darkly”? Will we have the courage to stand with ourselves and the final judge face to face?
Bergman is a guide in the “quarantine” time – of lockdowns, isolation, insight, and confrontation. He guides us through the process of change. The intimate process of transformation and re-evaluation.
And death.
More and more we feel that the time of death has come. A death that cannot be understood, mourned, comprehended. Whether we want it or not, death needs representation, that is why we have art
– film, theatre, literature, visual arts – so that through representation we do not let in the traumatic, unexpressed transcription of fear.
An artist is still looking for the language to tame the untameable. Art keeps on trying to overtake reality. This is the role of art. To try.
[Maja Kleczewska, Łukasz Chotkowski]
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Opening night in Warsaw, Teatr Powszechny: the 19th of March 2021
Opening night in Bydgoszcz, Teatr Polski: 4 September 2021
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Coproduction: Teatr Powszechny in Warsaw and Teatr Polski in Bydgoszcz.
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The license to exhibit the work was issued by the ZAiKS Authors' Association. Issue in agreement with Josef Weinberger Limited, London with permission from the Ingmar Bergman Foundation.
www.ingmarbergman.se
