by Ingmar Bergman; adapted for the stage by Jenny Worton
By Ingmar Bergman
Directed By Michael Attenborough
Karin is a young wife, an older sister and an only daughter. In her kaleidoscopic internal world the boundaries between different realities blur and shift.
Karin’s family go on their annual holiday together. On a bleakly beautiful island her husband, father and brother argue over the best way to help her. As events spiral out of control, Karin realises that she must take command of her own destiny.
Poignant and sensuous, Through a Glass Darkly is the Oscar-winning film by legendary Swedish director and screenwriter Ingmar Bergman. Bergman was director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm from 1960 to 1966, and Through a Glass Darkly is the only film that he gave permission to be adapted for the stage.
This Almeida production is in association with Andrew Higgie and Back Row Productions.
Evening performances: 7.30pm
Midweek matinees: 2.30pm on 14 & 28 July
Saturday matinees: 3.00pm from 19 June
Max
Dimitri will make his professional theatre debut in Through a Glass Darkly. His film credits include Tormented, Fairy Tale and Centurion and his television credits include Doctors, All About George, The Bill and the role of Josh Irvine in the BBC’s Grange Hill.
Max
Dimitri will make his professional theatre debut in Through a Glass Darkly. His film credits include Tormented, Fairy Tale and Centurion and his television credits include Doctors, All About George, The Bill and the role of Josh Irvine in the BBC’s Grange Hill.
David
Ian was last at the Almeida in Michael Attenborough’s There Came a Gypsy Riding. His extensive theatre work in Ireland includes many performances at The Gate and the Abbey Theatres in Dublin and The Lyric in Belfast. His London theatre work includes Attenborough's production of Amphibians for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Observe The Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme for Hampstead Theatre.
Film credits include: Cup Cake; Bittersweet; Leap Year; Closing the Ring; The Front Line; Omagh; The Boxer; The Michael Collins Story.
Television credits include: New Tricks; Scapegoat; Little Dorritt; Murphy’s Law.
Martin
Justin will shortly be appearing in On Theatre Company’s Pressure Drop with Billy Bragg at the Wellcome Collection.
Theatre Includes: Cat in a Hat, Our Class, The Seagull (National Theatre); The Birthday Party (Lyric Theatre); Bliss (Royal Court); Modern Dance for Beginners (Soho Theatre); Privates on Parade (Donmar Theatre).
Karin
Ruth is best known for her role as Jane Eyre in the BBC adaption of Charlotte Brontë's period drama and more recently as Queenie in the BBC's dramatisation of Andrea Levy's A Small Island. She also played Stella alongside Rachel Weisz in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Donmar Warehouse for which she received a 2010 Olivier Award.
Theatre credits include: Philistines (National Theatre); Good (The Sound Theatre); Macbeth (Djanogly Theatre); Dangerous Liaisons (Hush Productions); The Promise (Linbury Studio). Television credits include: Prisoner (AMB/ITV); Luther (BBC); MAD (Channel 4); A Real Summer (BBC); Capturing Mary (BBC)
Director
Michael Attenborough is Artistic Director of the Almeida Theatre (since 2002). Previously, he was Associate Director, Mercury Theatre, Colchester (1972-74), Associate Director, Leeds Playhouse (now West Yorkshire Playhouse) (1974-79), Associate Director, Young Vic (1979-80), Artistic Director, Palace Theatre, Watford (1980-84), Artistic Director, Hampstead Theatre (1984-89), Principal Associate Director, Royal Shakespeare Company (1990-2002). On leaving the RSC he was invited to become an Honorary Associate Artist.
For the Almeida: Measure For Measure; When the Rain Stops Falling; In a Dark Dark House; The Homecoming; Awake and Sing; Big White Fog; There Came A Gypsy Riding; Enemies; The Late Henry Moss; Brighton Rock; The Mercy Seat; Five Gold Rings.
For the Royal Shakespeare Company: Amphibians; The Changeling; Les Liaisons Dangereuses (UK & European Tour); After Easter; Pentecost; The Herbal Bed (also in the West End & on Broadway); Romeo and Juliet; A Month in the Country; Othello; Henry IV parts 1 and 2; The Prisoner’s Dilemma; Antony and Cleopatra.
For the Palace Theatre productions include: The Girl in Melanie Klein; The Big Knife; Romantic Comedy (also in the West End); Terra Nova.
For the Hampstead Theatre productions include: The War at Home (also on Broadway); Particular Friendships; That Summer; Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme; Separation (also in the West End).
Freelance: Over a Barrel; Single Spies (Turnstyle Group); 1984 (Citadel Theatre, Edmonton); Yerma (Abbey Theatre, Dublin); Anna Weiss (West End); My Mother Said I Never Should (Royal Court); Fashion (Tricycle Theatre); Apollo and Daphne (North Wall); Playing with Fire (National Theatre).
Adaptor
Jenny Worton is the Almeida’s Artistic Associate. She works alongside Michael Attenborough developing the artistic programme, as well as producing the theatre’s bi-annual Summer Festival. She was previously Literary Manager at the Tricycle Theatre, and worked in the Literary Departments at the Bush Theatre, the National Theatre and Out Of Joint. She adapted for the stage Dolls (National Theatre of Scotland and Hush Productions) and acted as dramaturg for the Gate Theatre, London on Breathing Irregular. She wrote the text for the South Bank Show nominated I Am Falling (Gate Theatre, London and Sadler’s Wells). Her original work for Radio Four includes Demonstrating Grace and A Hallowed Space.
Adaptor
Jenny Worton is the Almeida’s Artistic Associate. She works alongside Michael Attenborough developing the artistic programme, as well as producing the theatre’s bi-annual Summer Festival. She was previously Literary Manager at the Tricycle Theatre, and worked in the Literary Departments at the Bush Theatre, the National Theatre and Out Of Joint. She adapted for the stage Dolls (National Theatre of Scotland and Hush Productions) and acted as dramaturg for the Gate Theatre, London on Breathing Irregular. She wrote the text for the South Bank Show nominated I Am Falling (Gate Theatre, London and Sadler’s Wells). Her original work for Radio Four includes Demonstrating Grace and A Hallowed Space.
Designer
Recent work includes: Romeo and Juliet; The Comedy of Errors (RSC); Pressure Drop (On Theatre / Wellcome Collection); After Miss Julie (Salisbury Playhouse); Edward Gant’s Amazing Feats of Loneliness (Headlong); Here Lies Mary Spindler (RSC at Latitude Festival); Jack and The Beanstalk (Lyric Hammersmith); The Contingency Plan – On the Beach and Resilience (Bush Theatre); Vanya; Unbroken; The Internationalist (Gate theatre, London); Bay (Young Vic).
Designer
Recent work includes: Romeo and Juliet; The Comedy of Errors (RSC); Pressure Drop (On Theatre / Wellcome Collection); After Miss Julie (Salisbury Playhouse); Edward Gant’s Amazing Feats of Loneliness (Headlong); Here Lies Mary Spindler (RSC at Latitude Festival); Jack and The Beanstalk (Lyric Hammersmith); The Contingency Plan – On the Beach and Resilience (Bush Theatre); Vanya; Unbroken; The Internationalist (Gate theatre, London); Bay (Young Vic).
Lighting
For the Almeida: When the Rain Stops Falling.
Recent shows include:Canary (Liverpool Playhouse / ETT / Hampstead); The Glass Menagerie (Salisbury Playhouse / Shared Experience); Equus (Dundee Rep); The Caretaker (Liverpool Everyman / Trafalgar Studios); The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Edinburgh Lyceum); I Am Yusuf; This is my Brother (Young Vic); 365; The Bacchae; Black Watch (National Theatre of Scotland); Single Spies (Theatre Royal Bath Productions); Riflemind (Trafalgar Studios); Alex (Arts Theatre); No Idea; Panic; Theatre of Blood; Spirit; The Hanging Man; Lifegame; Coma; Animo; 70 Hill Lane (Improbable); Baby Baby (Stellar Quines); Kes; Separate Tables (Royal Exchange Manchester); Touched (Salisbury Playhouse); Enjoy (Watford Palace Theatre); Unprotected (Liverpool Everyman); Casanova; Playing the Victim (Told by an Idiot).
Opera includes: Extensive work for Opera Holland Park; Fidelio (Opera Touring Company Dublin); La Boheme (English Touring Opera); The Thief of Baghdad (Royal Opera House)
Music and Sound
Theatre includes: England (National Theatre / Whitechapel Gallery / international tour); Kursk; War Music; The Watery Part of the World; Going Dark (Sound&Fury); A Prayer for My Daughter (Young Vic); Fall (RSC / Traverse); Slippage (Rambert Dance Company); Othello; The Turn of the Screw; Uncle Vanya (Bristol Old Vic); Peter Pan; Happy Days; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Dundee Rep); Coriolanus; The Changeling; The Taming of the Shrew; Julius Caesar; The Tempest (Tobacco Factory).
Film includes:Max; Shadow of the Vampire; Manolete; Tomorrow La Scala; Four Last Songs; Twockers.
Television includes: Criminal Justice; Dead Set; David Attenborough’s Darwin and the Tree of Life; Sahara. For ITV: Witness, Real Lives. For the BBC: The Spying Game; Wildlife on One; The Ghosts of Rwanda; The Natural World; David Attenborough’s Life of Mammals; Horizon; The Iron Duke.
Radio Includes:Between the Ears (BBC Radio 3).
Audio artwork and installations include:Suburban Counterpoint: Music for Seven Ice Cream Vans (LIFT, NNF10); Sky Orchestra (Fierce Festival, RSC Complete Works Festival, Sydney Festival and international tour); Dream Director (ICA, Arnolfini and tour); Listening Posts (permanent installation Cork Harbour); Paradise Omeros (Julian Isaac, Tate Modern).
Dan has also produced string Arrangements for Massive Attack and Alpha / Jarvis Cocker.
Dan recently co-directed Kursk at The Young Vic.
Casting
For the Almeida: Measure for Measure; When the Rain Stops Falling; In a Dark Dark House; The Homecoming; Nocturne; Chain Play II; Awake and Sing, Dying for It; Out of the Fog.
Other theatre includes:Sucker Punch; Ingredient X; The Force of Change; Made of Stone; Local; Trade; About a Boy; Yardgal; Holy Mothers; Last Dance at Dum-Dum (Royal Court); Joe Turner’s Come and Gone; Annie Get Your Gun; In The Red and Brown Water; Lost Highway; The Good Soul of Szechuan; The Soldiers’ Fortune; Tintin; The Skin of our Teeth; Hobson’s Choice; The Daughter-in-law; Homebody Kabul; A Raisin in the Sun; Six Characters Looking for an Author (Young Vic); The House of Special Purpose (Chichester Festival Theatre); Arcadia; Swimming with Sharks; As You Like It; Antarctica; The Weir (West End); Six Characters in Search of an Author (Chichester Festival Theatre/West End/Sydney Festival); Three Sisters on Hope Street (Hampstead Theatre/Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse); Tintin (West End & national tour); Absolute Beginners (Lyric Hammersmith); Kafka’s Dick; We That Are Left; Heartbreak House (Watford Palace Theatre); pool (no water) (Frantic Assembly); Rabbit (Old Red Lion); Gaddafi - A Living Myth (English National Opera); Bad Jazz; A Brief History of Helen of Troy (Actors Touring Company); The Prayer Room (Birmingham Rep/Edinburgh International Festival); One Under (Tricycle Theatre); Anna in the Tropics; Yellowman (Hampstead Theatre); Othello (Cheek by Jowl); The Morris, Port Authority; Urban Legend; The Kindness of Strangers; Yellowman (Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse); The Girl on the Sofa (Edinburgh International Festival/Schaubuhne Theatre, Berlin); Original Sin (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield).
Television includes:Adha Cup; Parliamo Glasgow; Harvest; The Verdict; The Bill; The Badness of George IV.
Julia is a member of the Casting Director’s Guild
Assistant Director
Since graduating from Goldsmiths with a degree in Drama and Theatre Arts, Kate trained in physical theatre at the London International School of Performing Arts.
Theatre credits include: Assistant Director, Breathing Irregular (Gate Theatre, London); Co-creator and performer, How it Ended (You Need Me, Camden People’s Theatre and Arcola Theatre); Certain Dark Things (Tobacco Factory and Underbelly, Edinburgh); Festen (also in West End); Performer, Rapunzel (Kneehigh Theatre Company, UK tour and New York).
Fight Director
For the Almeida: In a Dark Dark House; The Homecoming; Awake and Sing!; Big White Fog; The Late Henry Moss; Festen (also in West End).
Theatre includes:His Dark Materials; Henry IV Parts I and II; Scenes from the Big Picture; Othello; Duchess of Malfi; Edmund; Landscape with Weapon; Elmina’s Kitchen; The White Guard (National Theatre); Henry VI Parts I, II, and III; Hamlet; Macbeth; Romeo and Juliet; Coriolanus; As You Like It; Cymbeline; Sniger; Henry V (RSC); Our Country is Good (Royal Court); Peter Pan (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Les Liaison Dangereuse (Bristol Old Vic); Of Mice and Men (Birmingham and West End); Caligula; Don Carlos; Othello (Donmar); The People are Friendly (Traverse, Edinburgh); Moon for the Misgotten (Old Vic); Fool for Love (West End); Titus Andronicus (Globe); Three Musketeers (Crucible Sheffield).
Opera and musicals include:Porgy and Bess; Otello; Martin Guerre; Jesus Christ Superstar; Oliver; Saturday Night Fever; Spend Spend Spend; Fifteen Streets; Lautrec; Chitty Chitty Bang Bang; Guys and Dolls; Billy Elliot the Musical; Cabaret; Fiddler on the Roof; Jerry Springer the Opera; Our House; Lord of the Rings the Musical; Dirty Dancing; Zorro the Musical.
Television includes:The Bill; Casualty; EastEnders; Broken Glass; A Kind of Innocence; Fell Tiger; The Scold’s Bridle; Fatal Inversion; Nerys Glas; Death of a Salesman; The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd; The Mayor of Casterbridge; Lucky Jim; Blue Dove; Rock Face.
★★★★ "I do not say this flippantly. This is a dangerously powerful piece of theatre.
The Times
★★★★" Once again the Almeida has an emotionally shattering hit on its hands."
The Telegraph
Special Swedish Smörgåsbord menu throughout Through a Glass Darkly run
Round off a trip to see Through a Glass Darkly with some traditional Swedish food whilst the sun sets. We will be serving a selection of dishes including Meatballs with Dill Sauce, Home-cured Gravadlax and White Bean and Rosemary dip, all served with linseed and rye bread. See full menu . Available before and after the production, subject to popularity on the evening.
Dimitri Leonidas
Ian McElhinney
Justin Salinger
Ruth Wilson
Michael Attenborough Director
Jenny Worton Adaptor
Tom Scutt Design
Colin Grenfell Lighting
Dan Jones Music & Sound
Julia Horan Casting Director
Kate Hewitt Assistant Director
Terry King Fight Director