Ingmar Bergman's work focused on exploring the interior of the human psyche in an extreme situation. He focused on people isolated from the outside world.
He locked his protagonists on an "island" - in family relations, in states of emergency. Locked within four walls, we put our bonds to the test. We see under a magnifying glass the relationships that have eluded us in the busyness of things. Forced confrontation with the other and oneself leads to insight? To madness? Will we see each other “as in the Mirror”? Will we have the courage to stand face to face, with ourselves and the ultimate?
Bergman is a Guide to “quarantine” time
- lock-up, isolation, insight and confrontation. He takes us through the process of transformation. An intimate process of transformation and re-evaluation.
And death.
It is increasingly clear to us that the time of death has come. Death that cannot be comprehended, mourned, understood. Whether we want it or not, death needs representation, that's what art is for - film, theatre, literature, visual arts - so that through representation we can prevent the traumatic, unexpressed record of fear.
The artist is still searching for the language to tame the untamed. Art is still trying to get ahead of reality. This is the duty of Art. To try.
[Maja Kleczewska, Łukasz Chotkowski]
The text of the performance is based on the screenplay of Ingmar Bergman's “Face to Face” translated by Zygmunt Łanowski.
The adaptation also includes excerpts from movie scripts: “Autumn Sonata” (transl. Zygmunt Łanowski), “Cries and Whispers” (transl. Andrzej Asłanowicz), “Sarabanda” (transl. Tadeusz Szczepański) and “Silence” (transl. Stanisław Hebanowski).
