ZEITGEIST is an odd phenomenon. That which was faded or taboo in times before gains a new weighting as culture calibrates in discovery. Trending high for 2011 is Swedish filmography (Girl with…; Wallendar; The Killing) and our recent embrace of mental distress. Mental Health Week in October had us singing in choral harmonies at the mall. Now local theatre pitches in with a production of Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Through a Glass Darkly’.
Stepping up to the plate is Richie Ryan’s CentreStage Productions, that which made a terrific job of ‘Proof’, another probe in psychological distress.
“’Through a Glass Darkly’ was the only one of Bergman’s films he allowed to be adapted for the stage,” Richie Ryan reports as director. “This play is about Karin (Deirdre Flynn) who is experiencing mental illness, possibly schizophrenia. She goes with her family to the island they own for a couple of days’ healing and something happens, ultimately good”.
Does she meet a redemptive force, or find it within herself?
“Over the 12 scenes, she meets with love. I feel there is quite a message of hope to this play.”.
Actress Deirdre Flynn, busy with a PhD in English Lit., is central to these Bergman blues. She speaks of Karin as a young woman married to an older man, “and quite vulnerable, it seems the mental illness was always there. Her husband, a doctor, is caring and tries to help her but often in ways that are not helping. We are told Karin is like her mother, that suggestion of inherited or similar illness and although her mother is dead, we have no idea how she died”.
Action is confined to the island and within a short timeframe. ‘Through a Glass Darkly’ gathers intensity as the family dynamic between people is forced to confront issues in the criss-cross of relationships and the reality of Karin’s illness.
The maturity of this cast was evident in ‘Proof’s angry push-pull mechansim. Here, Mark P O’Connor and Noel Egan are again the receiving males. Conor J Ryan, cast as Karin’s younger brother, brought an enquiring sensitivity to an awkward scene of grief in Quarry Players’ ‘Rabbit Hole’ last February.
This ensemble gathers for Thursday November 3, Friday 4, Saturday 5 at CentreSPACE Studios, 7.30pm.
