After the Rehearsal / Persona

Fragile boundary

Director Ivo van Hove has a thing with Ingmar Bergman. He has already staged wonderful productions of Scenes from a Marriage (2005) and Cries and Whispers (2009). Now he will be directing two plays by the Swedish theatre and film director: After the Rehearsal (1984), a TV essay about theatre and acting and Persona (1966), a film Bergman himself regarded as one of his best works. You will get to see them both on one evening.

After the Rehearsal is a play about the meaning of theatre. For the director theatre is his life. His productions are his autobiography. He lives in and through theatre. The illusion of theatre is his reality. In Persona, we see how a leading actress abruptly breaks off a scene and then refuses to speak. She is taken to hospital, where a young nurse takes care of her. For the actress, her life has become empty and meaningless. The nurse tries to give her back her zest for life. Deep inside, however, they feel the same dissatisfaction.

In both scripts Bergman seeks the fragile boundary separating imagination and reality, sickness and normality. In both works he explores the meaning of art in our lives and in society. Personal and human. Rock-hard and full of love.