Bergman at B.A.M.: A Perspective of Stage Space

Bergman at B. A.M.: A Perspective of Stage Space Eric Hagen With A Doll's House following Miss Julie and Long Day's Journey, it is evident that the visit of Mr. Bergman and the Royal Dramatic Theatre of Sweden is the most memorable theatrical event of the New York International Festival of the Arts—and of the theater season. (Mel Gussow New York Times, 20 June 1991) The Royal Dramatic Theatre of Sweden presented Miss Julie by August Strindberg, Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill, and Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House as part of The New York International Festival of the Arts at the Brooklyn Academy of Music this past summer1 providing spectators the opportunity to experience three productions directed by Ingmar Bergman. Though internationally acclaimed for his work in both cinema (The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, and Fanny and Alexander) and the theatre (The Dreamplay, King Lear, Hamlet, et al), Bergman's stage work, unfortunately, is seldom seen in the United States. His stage production oÃ- Hamlet, performed in New York in 1988, was an exception, and the brief appearance of this trio of classics under his artistic guidance marks an event that is even more rare. One aspect of these productions which seems to be uniquely revelatory is the manner in which Bergman and Gunilla Palmstierna-Weiss (scenic and costume designer for all three productions) utilize stage space.2 Though widely heralded as realist dramas, Miss Julie, Long Days ' Journey and A Doll's House are here featured with designs that have non-realistic elements. By describing key aspects of each production's design and by linking particular design choices to theme, I will examine Palmstierna-Weiss and Bergman's stagecraft. Miss Julie Bergman and Palmstierna-Weiss set M¿ss Julie in a kitchen, located in the basement of a nineteenth-century country manor house. The room, which is gray, runs the full width of the stage and has thick walls, simulating a stone structure. A ceiling piece, with large beams raked in a downward direction from the proscenium arch toward the top of the back wall completes the enclosure of 77 78 Eric Hagen the environment. The angle of the design leads the eye upstage to the main entrance and to the four small horizontal windows which are evenly distributed across the rear wall (two on each side of the entrance) and which reveal glimpses of the exterior world. In his stage directions to the play, Strindberg describes an exterior that includes "a fountain with a statue of a cupid, lilac bushes in bloom, and the tops of some Lombardy poplars" (Strindberg 219). Bergman and Palmstierna-Weiss eliminate these realistic details that resonate with love and passion, and present instead an icy white backdrop with only a hint of greenery fringing the railing of a partially-seen exterior stair unit. Though chronological time and mood are suggested in how lights play upon the backdrop, the overall impression created is of a vacant, cold and discordant void. The harshness of the world is most fully realized when Bergman has the intensity of the lighting increase rapidly at the moment that Julie washes her face (257). Although the sun is coming up simultaneously, the deliberateness with which the effect is executed seems designed to "break the magic spell," for it startles the audience and imbues the event, the cleansing gesture, with increased significance. That Julie has experienced both a social and spiritual fall from grace is clear. But now, in Bergman's glaring white light, her soul, like the wound on her cheek, is fully exposed, and she is at her most vulnerable as her journey to self-annihilation goes unchecked. The main entrance to the room is a set of double doors with a vertical window in each, located upstage center on a landing that is four steps above the kitchen/stage floor. Access to this door from the outside is gained by descending the steep stair unit that extends off upstage right. Other points of entry into the room are the upstage right entry which serves both as an area where Jean changes his livery and as an avenue...