By Mark Shenton
21 Oct 2009

London's Almeida Theatre is to stage Australian playwright Andrew Upton's new adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's Oscar-winning film "Through a Glass Darkly," beginning performances June 10, 2010 prior to an official opening June 16, for a run through July 31. The Almeida's artistic director Michael Attenborough will direct, with casting and the rest of the production team to be announced next year.

Earlier this year the Almeida Theatre Company was invited to take part in the Ingmar Bergman International Theatre Festival at the Dramaten (Royal Dramatic Theatre of Sweden) in Stockholm, to perform a rehearsed reading of Upton's Through a Glass Darkly. This adaptation has subsequently been further developed for the coming production.

Written and directed by Bergman, the 1961 film – entitled "Såsom i en spegel" in its native Swedish – won the 1962 Oscar for Best Foreign Language film, and Bergman was also nominated for the Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay, written directly for the screen.

According to press materials, the story revolves around Karin, a young wife, an older sister and an only daughter. Her kaleidoscopic interior world is a constantly changing picture, where the boundaries between the everyday and the holy defy distinction. Karin's family have taken her on a recuperative holiday. On a bleakly beautiful island where their relationships become increasingly entangled, as the three most important men in her life prove increasingly incapable of helping to cure her, Karin decides to take control of her own destiny."

Upton, who is currently co-artistic director and co-CEO of Sydney Theatre Company with his wife Cate Blanchett, has previously adapted Gorky's The Philistines for London's National Theatre. For Sydney Theatre Company, he has previously adapted Don Juan, Hedda Gabler (which subsequently played at Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York) and The Cherry Orchard. His adaptation of Pirandello's Right You Are (If You Think You Are), was staged by Francesco Vezzoli at the Guggenheim Museum in New York for a one off performance.

The late Bergman's other films include "Smiles of a Summer Night," "Scenes from a Marriage," "The Magic Flute," "Autumn Sonata" and the Oscar winning "Fanny and Alexander" and "The Virgin Spring." He directed extensively for the stage and was executive director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm and at the Residenz Theater in Munich.

Michael Attenborough is artistic director of the Almeida Theatre, where his most recent productions have been Neil LaBute's In a Dark Dark House and Andrew Bovell's When the Rain Stops Falling. Prior to Through a Glass Darkly, he will direct Shakespare's Measure for Measure at the Almeida in February 2010. He has previously been artistic director of Watford''s Palace Theatre and London's Hampstead Theatre, and principal associate director of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

This Almeida production of Through A Glass Darkly is produced in association with Cate Blanchett, Andrew Upton, Andrew Higgie, Garry McQuinn and Liz Koops.

Public booking for Through a Glas Darkly opens on Nov. 12, 2009. To book tickets, contact the box office on 020 7359 4404, or visit www.almeida.co.uk.