Ingmar Bergman’s 1976 film Face to Face is adapted for the stage by Andrew Upton and Simon Stone.
In Face to Face, renowned thespian Kerry Fox plays Jenny, a woman with a comfortable life who is married to a fellow psychiatrist, has a gorgeous daughter, is well-travelled and enjoys a successful career. Lately though, she has been plagued by terrifying, vivid dreams. After a shocking event she is shaken to the core by the tragic realisation that while she spends her life analysing other people’s minds, she is incapable of confronting her own demons. Descending into hallucinations and delirium, she must make a psychological journey to an intensely claustrophobic yet epic space.
At the time of its release, the 1976 film-reviews featuring Liv Ullmann (director of STC’s award winning A Streetcar Named Desire) was considered a groundbreaking, subtle and precise study of a woman in crisis. Upton and Stone’s adaptation preserves the psychological textures of the original but draws out the larger-than-life theatrical possibilities that the screenplay offers, to create a very different work.
Making her STC debut, Kerry Fox has appeared on stage in her native New Zealand, in Sydney and in London, most recently in Andrew Bovell’s Speaking in Tongues in the West End. Her extensive cinema credits include An Angel At My Table for which she was awarded Best Actress honours in the New Zealand film-reviews Awards, the San Sebastian Festival and the Venice film-reviews Festival; The Last Days of Chez Nous which earned her the Asia-Pacific film-reviews Festival Award for Best Supporting Actress; and Intimacy for which she won the Silver Bear Best Actress Award at the Berlin film-reviews Festival. Her numerous other film-reviews roles include Shallow Grave, Welcome to Sarajevo, The Sound of One Hand Clapping, The Gathering, Storm, Bright Star, Intruders and Burning Man. TV credits include A Village Affair, Waking the Dead and Trial and Retribution, The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall and Cloudstreet.
John Gaden’s strong association with STC includes his time as a member of the STC Actors Company with memorable performances in The War of the Roses and The Season at Sarsaparilla. Wendy Hughes’ most recent stage performances in Sydney have been in STC’s Pygmalion and Honour. Simon Stone is Resident Director at Belvoir where his production of Death of a Salesman opens in June.
Director: Simon Stone. Set and Lighting Designer: Nick Schlieper. Costume Designer: Alice Babidge. Composer and Sound Designer: Stefan Gregory. Dramaturg: Tom Wright.
Cast includes: Kerry Fox, John Gaden, Wendy Hughes, Anna Martin, Dylan Young.