About This Show
The National Pastime Theater, in conjunction with Clock Productions respectfully presents the live world premiere of Ingmar Bergman’s The Magician.
In 1947, Swedish director Ingmar Bergman staged a tale of mystery, magic and erotic explosion at the Gothenburg City Theater. Over a decade later, he wrote and directed The Magician — perhaps inspired by the dark muses of that play, perhaps by the unpredictable relationship between traveling troupes and audiences of his experience. It became one of his most unforgettable and haunting films.
Today, after two years of intense research and planning, The National Pastime Theater Company brings this tale full circle back to the live stage.
Directed and adapted for the stage by Laurence Bryan, The Magician is set in a distant foreign land in the 1800’s, offering up a wandering band of gypsies who peddle their magical wares from town to town. They promise amazing supernatural feats, as well as healing and true love potions. However, in one town, local doubters enlist the aid of police and medical officials to use the troupe for amusement and experiment. The aristocracy of this town wishes to disprove all evidence of magic or divine inspiration, hoping to reduce the entire performance to bare science.
Always the case with The National Pastime Theater Company, all is not as it seems. Lurid events of seduction, deceit and magical amazement reveal a tangled underpinning of surprising and horrific events.
Neil Tobin, necromancer extraordinaire of Super Natural Chicago, serves as Magical Advisor to The Magician. Violence is choreographed by R&D Choreography.
