“There are only three things necessary for a performance to work: the play – words – the actors and the audience. You don’t need anything else for the miracle to happen.”
-Ingmar Bergman, After the Rehearsal

Following on from Scènes de la vie conjugale (Scenes from a Marriage) and Après la répétition (After the Rehearsal) in 2013, STAN once again turns its attention to Ingmar Bergman’s oeuvre. With Robby Cleiren (de Roovers) and Ruth Becquart they share the need to delve more deeply into Bergman’s work.

Infidèles is based on the eponymous script from 1996 and Bergman’s autobiography Laterna Magica published in 1987. The play is intended as a tribute to Ingmar Bergman and first and foremost to Bergman the writer. In Infidèles Bergman himself goes into dialogue with his characters and the first-person narrator is incorporated in the piece. This exploration of the autobiographical dimension of his work is not reduced to voyeurism, confession or psychologization, but shows how subtly and ruthlessly Bergman exposed human relationships. 

The uninhibited theatrical reading will throw into relief the discernment and humanity, the vitality and humour of Bergman’s oeuvre. The piece will be an unaffected tribute, a declaration of love, a gesture of respect and admiration, but one that avoids idolatry. 

text: Ingmar Bergman
from & with: Ruth Becquart, Robby Cleiren, Jolente De Keersmaeker en Frank Vercruyssen
production: STAN and de Roovers

coproduction: Festival D’Automne (Paris), Théâtre de la Bastille (Paris), Théâtre Garonne (Toulouse)