After the Rehearsal / Persona

based on the films of Ingmar Bergman

seen at the Barbican Theatre on 28 September 2017

Once again director Ivo van Hove has devised a theatrical event by adapting cinematic works - two in one evening in this case. Gijs Scholten van Aschat (Hendrik and the husband), Gaite Jansen (Anna and Alma) and Marieke Heebink (Rachel and Elisabeth) feature in both plays, with Lineke Rijxman as the doctor in Persona, and the production is designed by Jan Versweyveld, van Hove's usual collaborator. It is spoken in Dutch with English surtitles provided.

I have seen neither of the original films, so cannot directly comment on how successful the transference to stage has been. However, After the Rehearsal struck me as the more problematic, even though as a stage piece it is relatively uncomplicated, taking place in a backstage space between the director (Hendrik) and his leading actress (Anna) after a rehearsal of Strindberg's A Dream Play. At one stage an older actress, Rachel, appears berating Hendrik for giving her only a small part now that her stage (and personal?) allure is fading. It is clear that the two were once intimately involved, and that Hendrik and Anna are assessing the possibilities of a liaison as well, but there is also much talk about art and theatrical expression, which verges on ranting, especially when expressed with the unfamiliar tones and nuances of a foreign language. Also, most peculiarly, it is clear that Rachel and Anna are mother and daughter, but they barely acknowledge one another, except for a moment when Rachel attacks Anna; and the younger woman remains on stage working at some notes during the entire conversation between Hendrik and Rachel, which I found both unsettling and unexplained, as she gave no reaction to what she must have been hearing.

Or was it all a fantasy of Hendrik's? 

I found Persona more compelling though its initial premise is fairly extreme - Elisabeth, an opera singer, dried during a performance of Strauss's Electra and since then has refused to speak. The Doctor assigns a young nurse Alma to care for her, and eventually suggests that they leave the hospital and stay at the Doctor's summer cottage beside the sea. There is a spectacular scene change, and the remainder of the play is performed on a platform lapped by a shallow pool of water, allowing for some wonderful but discreet lighting effects as the ripples reflect against the back wall, and lending a dreamlike quality to all that follows. The two characters - one almost completely silent apart from some inarticulate noises, and the other endlessly loquacious - are marvellously portrayed by the two actresses, each part requiring great skill to be maintained with interest and credibility. When Elisabeth's husband arrives, he spends almost the entire time addressing Alma as if she were his wife; the overall effect is very compelling.

Ivo van Hove's productions are always interesting, but both here and in Obsession (reviewed in April 2017) the atmosphere is detached, emphasising the formal patterns of stagecraft as much as the interior lives of the characters. Without doubt his most powerful production in my experience has been A View from the Bridge (reviewed in March 2015) where his attention to symbolic theatrical detail most perfectly matched the trajectory of the play itself.