Scenes from a Marriage

Ivo van Hove, the Belgian director who has done important work in both Europe and the US, has been the director of Toneelgroep Amsterdam, the Netherlands’ prime repertory theater, since 2001. This is the company’s first visit to Greece. Apart from his work with core plays of the classical and contemporary repertoire, Van Hove has also in recent years undertaken the transfer of classic cinematic works to the stage. His focus has been on the new cinema of the nineteen sixties and seventies: Pasolini’s "Teorema", Bergman’s “Cries and Whispers”, Cassavetes’ “Opening Night” and works by Visconti and Antonioni. His production of "Scenes from a Marriage" (2005) was his first attempt at a work by Bergman.

Van Hove has imposed a dramatic structure on the script which serves a revelatory function in its on-stage rendering. Multiplying Bergman’s characters and plotlines to underscore the work’s urban mythology of married life, he presents its seven scenes in three variations and multiple versions with a young, middle-aged and elderly couple. The audience is put on stage and invited to choose between the different parallel spaces in which the action unfolds simultaneously.

Van Hove’s is an entirely non-illusory theater in which the theatrical space created by his long-term collaborator, Jan Versweyveld serves no metaphorical function: stage arrangements, a minimum of props and the energizing presence of a fine ensemble company are all he needs to take us deep into Bergman’s world, but also to convey its humor. Van Hove’s theater constitutes an extraordinary volte face: a return to the ideal of a theater of words in an era in which the theater of the image has been the dominant paradigm for the theatrical pioneers of recent decades.