Ingmar Bergman’s Persona

Ingmar Bergman’s wrote Persona in nine weeks, while recovering from pneumonia. The 1966 film went on to be widely acclaimed as one of the greatest masterpieces of the 20th Century. Bergman himself said the the film “touched wordless secrets”. The mysterious tale of a famous actress’s mental breakdown and her recovery at the hands of a young psychiatric nurse has endured as a cinematic favorite. Of his film, Bergman said “I invite the imagination of the reader or the spectator to dispose freely of the material that I have made available” and INGMAR BERGMAN’S PERSONA accepts Bergman’s invitation by going back to the shooting script that inspired the film and using it as source material, including lines that never made it into the final film. Bergman’s own screen descriptions and personal musings, which he included in his shooting script but not the film, are also part of this adaptation. This is the first stage adaptation of Persona in NYC.