Persona

(Belvoir St Theatre)

The current presentation by Belvoir Street Theatre, 'Persona', is a stage adaptation of an Ingmar Bergman film (of the same name) from 1966. The essence of the plot is that a nurse is caring for an actress who has stopped speaking.

It is an unusual piece in that only one of the four characters who appear on stage has any dialogue of consequence, in fact she speaks almost all of the dialogue with two of the others remaining mute or almost completely mute. In typical Scandinavian style there are long silences and little specific action.

Having never seen the film I cannot comment on how closely or otherwise this adaptation follows it. The acting is excellent and the play appears open to many interpretations. I changed my mind several times as to what the play is about.

As seems to be the case with majority of Belvoir Street productions nowadays, this play contains nudity.

★★★1/2