Bergman, Ingmar

Bergman, Ingmar (1918– ), Swedish director, who at the age of 20 was directing with an amateur company. In 1942 he wrote a play, Kaspers död (Kasper's Death), which he also directed. He was head of the municipal theatre in Hälsingborg, 1944–6, and of Gothenburg's city theatre, 1946–9, where his opening production was Camus's Caligula, with Anders Ek. From this time he worked increasingly in the cinema, developing a distinguished international reputation; but he concurrently held appointments at the Malmö city theatre, 1952–60, and at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm, 1963–6, where he introduced a number of reforms and attracted to the company some of Sweden's most distinguished players. His intense, often morbid, concentration on psychological interpretation in the tradition of Strindberg (at whose plays he excelled) was brought to bear on other authors ranging from Chekhov via Pirandello and Brecht to Albee. In 1970 he directed Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, with Maggie Smith, for the National Theatre company, and his production of Strindberg's The Dream Play was seen in London during the World Theatre Season in 1971. In 1976, after being wrongly charged with tax irregularities, he left Sweden, working at the Residenztheater in Munich, where his productions included his own Scenes from a Marriage (1981), and not returning permanently to the Royal Dramatic Theatre until 1985. He directed his first Hamlet in 1986, and in 1987 his productions of this play and Strindberg's Miss Julie were staged by the RDT at the National Theatre in London.