Feature Review - Victoria Claringbold

Through A Glass Darkly has its first stage production at the Almeida this year after consent for the adaptation was given to Jenny Warton. The play is set in 1960 on an island off the coast of Sweden and follows Karin (played by Ruth Wilson) on a family holiday with her husband Martin (Justin Salinger), her younger brother Max (Dimitri Leonidas) and her father David (Ian McElhinney). Karin is suffering from a mental illness of which the diagnosis is never fully revealed. This encroaches on all the other characters lives as they try to help and understand her.

After her acclaimed role as Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Donmar in 2009 Ruth Wilson takes her first lead theatrical role in this extremely powerful production. I was shocked and awed by the depths Wilson was able to descend into whilst portraying the troubled Karin.

As the story unfolds we are privy to the neglect endured by Karin and Max by their writer father David. He appears to be absent from their lives and more interested in his academic status than his children’s wellbeing. This is shown through broken promises of saying he’ll spend time with Max then telling them he is going to be lecturing in Yugoslavia. David’s insensitivity is further exposed when he admits he sees Karin as a subject to be observed and has a “terrible interest in it [her illness].”

Martin is a sanctimonious doctor who, portrayed by Justin Salinger, is determined to keep the status quo and desperate to hold on to his ‘little girl’, who’s illness keeps her infantilised. Martin thinks of himself as a cure for Karin’s illness and believes his love can keep her from her delirium.

The set is dowsed in smoke and the washed grey walls and exposed brick with cracked, peeling wallpaper all indicate the fragile mind of Karin. Tom Scutt’s staging was also extremely innovative as a trap door sprouted a bed, a table then a boat. The walls close in when Karin is sent to bed perhaps indicating the prison she is confined to by her controlling husband.

Dimitri Leonidas was able to give a clear depiction of the sixteen year old Max, with self conscious body language, puppy dog eyes and the comical line “You don’t understand. Nobody understands.”

The play tackles the important issue of coping with a loved one’s mental illness and its effects. David who has also watched his wife Ellen suffering with a similar condition admits in a harrowing scene that it was a relief when she died.

The image of Karin when she hears her name being called by invisible voices akin to dripping water was particularly heartbreaking. As she descends into madness she is bathed in white light and appears almost possessed. We are given the concept that her neglect by her father and abandonment by her mother have given her a need to create her own imagined world where she can be spoken to by the minions of god.

In a lucid moment Karin pinpoints the root of her impending downfall that gives rise to her paranoia, “Holidays! They’re supposed to be relaxing but in fact they’re just lumps of time without any distractions.”

This is a career making turn for Wilson who astounded me with her chilling, tortured interpretation of Karin. It would be criminal if this production doesn’t transfer to the west end.

Victoria Claringbold


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Through A Glass Darkly



Almeida Theatre
Almeida Theatre, Almeida Street, Islington, London, N1 1TA

Running Time: 1 hour 30 mins (no interval)
Director: Michael Attenborough
Age Recommendation: Adult
Additional Notes: Contains brief nudity Show times - Mon-Sat 19:30, Sat 15:00
Bookings being taken until: 31 July 2010

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Through A Glass Darkly centres on 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 has 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. Written and directed by Sweden's Ingmar Bergman, Through A Glass Darkly won the 1962 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. It was the only one of his films that Bergman allowed to be adapted for the stage.


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