A classic coming-of-age story and an epic symphony
Fanny and Alexander is an epic family saga that follows the lives of the Ekdahl theatre family and the family of Bishop Edward Vergerus. “The worlds of theatre, art and the church are strongly present in it. A certain spectacle and polyphony are at the core of the work,” says director Paavo Westerberg .
By polyphony, Westerberg refers to the fact that each central character in the drama carries different variations of common themes, or counter-themes.
“Still, in some way, all the characters are at the same source, and towards the end, the voices can be played at the same time. The play is not viewed through just one argument. But the focus is on conflicts and changes in family relationships. At the same time, it is a classic growth story.”
Fanny and Alexander is based on Ingmar Bergman’s semi-autobiographical masterpiece (1982). “Bergman is not only a great director, but also a fantastic screenwriter. He is particularly accurate in depicting the human mind and the milieu. The language is infinitely rich, and the world of the work has offered a lot to think about,” Westerberg says.
Westerberg’s adaptation has been based on a more prosaic version written by Bergman instead of a film. He has wanted to distance himself from film, which is known to many, because theatre and film are so different as art forms.
“Theatre enables a more carnivalesque approach, where serious issues can also be viewed in a playful and light way. In a different way than in the film, you can bring in things that don’t have real-life limitations.”
Childhood experiences
At the heart of the stage interpretation are the perspectives of Fanny and Alexander. They grow up in a homely theatre family, but after their father’s death, they are forced to move in with their mother’s husband.
The bishop has a very different understanding of the world and raising children than what children are used to.
Westerberg is interested in the emotions produced by growing apart from the family and finding one’s own self. In the preliminary planning, Westerberg and his artistic design team have considered childhood from the perspectives of both survival and childhood treasures.
“We have all survived childhood, but in some way we carry childhood inside us. What are the things that have made us who we are? What is the script of our childhood?”
According to Westerberg, stories and imagination are often located at the core of the self, and that is also the area in which the play moves. For Alexander, imagination is a resource that saves him from situations, although on the other hand, it also drives him into conflicts.
Alexander has to face things that he would not wish for in anyone’s childhood. Still, the play looks at childhood with mercy. It doesn’t deny the shades of pain, but it doesn’t delve into them with the idea that trauma makes us who we are.
“It’s a different matter whether the trauma becomes a story of my life or a story in my life. Between these two thought structures, there is a big question of whether childhood can be rewritten,” Westerberg clarifies.
Praise of the theatre
As children of a theatre family, Fanny and Alexander grow up in the world of stories and get to follow the mystique of story building. In a new family, stories are not treated as favourably. Piispa thinks that for theatre people, stories are an escape from reality and that they do not dare to live in the moment, while theatre people think that it is through stories that they encounter reality.
“These two opposing views are in conflict at the level of values and create an interesting tension for the viewer,” Westerberg says.
He describes the play as a big spinning wheel that opens up in many directions. “What appeals to me about this story is the similarity of life. No character is only good or evil, but the richness and credibility of life come to the fore, everything has nuances.”
In addition, the gallery of characters is so rich that it allows for a view that does not contain just one truth. “It is a coming-of-age story and an epic symphony in which the most important questions of life, the questions of love and death, are dealt with within the framework of family, childhood and theatre.”
Westerberg already had a different idea about the play, but with the coronavirus, he had a strong desire to praise theatre and performing, living art.
The play begins with the theatre director’s speech: I love this little world inside these thick walls, and I also like the people who work in this little world. There is a big world outside, and sometimes the small world manages to reflect the big world for a moment, so that we understand it better.
“The work is constantly on the border between the small and the big world. The joy is that in a small world there are different laws, even though it is a mirror to what is happening outside. Theatre is the art of the moment and a wonderful play,” Westerberg says.
Ida Henritius
Written in June 2022