Cries and Whispers

A theatrical adaptation of a film script by the world-famous Swedish film and theatre director, writer and playwright Ingmar Bergman, one of the classics of 20th century cinema. For the first performance of Bergman’s work in Jihlava, Jakub Čermák, a leading representative of the young generation of directors, recognised for his visually impressive and at the same time emotionally and interpretively powerful treatment of the classic theme, has adapted the draft into a stage form. The original script, as well as the intended future form of the production, brings attention to the end of the 19th century, specifically to the arrival of a pair of wealthy sisters at the family farm, where they are to spend the last days of their third, terminally ill sister’s life together. A deeply spiritual and emotional probe and a theme pushed to the periphery of interest, that of the proximity of death and coming to terms with it. Thus, in unison with this thematic shade, the farmhouse opens up a chasm between the loving care and attention of the selfless maid there on the one hand and the selfishness and emotional emptiness and unattainability of the sisters towards the dying on the other. Both challenging and consoling, Whispers and Cries sheds light on the tangled space of reconciliation, compassion and grief sought between tenderness and cruelty.