Riverside Studios, London
Alice Krige’s commanding presence can’t ignite this stark adaptation, which suffers from needless narrator interjections
Ingmar Bergman adaptations have provided a steady supply of theatre productions this century, from Trevor Nunn’s scalding Scenes from a Marriage to Fanny and Alexander at the Old Vic and a clammy three-hour double bill by Ivo van Hove of Persona and After the Rehearsal. A new interpretation of Persona – reopening the Riverside Studios in west London – has now tempted Alice Krige back to the stage after two decades. And no wonder: this influential 1966 psychodrama is both a cornerstone of arthouse cinema and the film that rescued its creator from the doldrums. Bergman was recovering in hospital from double pneumonia when he wrote the feverish screenplay about two women – one garrulous, the other silent – whose identities begin to merge.
This stark production by Krige’s husband, Paul Schoolman, introduces a narrator figure, played by Schoolman and effectively Bergman in all but name, who recites stage directions from the script and supplies needless interjections. There may be performers who would benefit from an ongoing director’s commentary (“Treachery, such treachery!” he cries after a moment of betrayal) but the calmly commanding Krige isn’t one of them.
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