Dramatik

Enquist is a giant of contemporary Swedish literature, and his historical novels have won an international readership. No surprise, then, that this first presentation in English of theatrical pieces includes dramatizations featuring Strindberg, Selma Lagerlof, and Hans Christian Anderson (who is shown as amusingly, appalling clueless). They're fine pieces for the stage; they go cracking along with plenty of confrontation among small casts of characters. The UK premiers of these pieces took place in 1978, 1990 and 1996; only the last, featuring Lagerlof, has no UK theatre date. The more's the pity, since the original was directed by Ingmar Bergman in 1998. From the (very useful) introduction by Gunilla Anderman: "In an interview on the show more eve of the opening night, Bergman tells of receiving the script, described as a play about the creation of a play, only to realise that he had previously met or worked with all the charactersappearing in Enquist's documentary material drawn from the silent film era." show less