Persona – Fraught Outfit

Overview

Things are about to get existential at the Malthouse, with Fraught Outfit’s production of Persona opening this week. An adaptation of a classic Ingmar Bergman film, the show premiered at Theatre Works last year, getting an enthusiastic reaction from critics, including three gongs' worth of enthusiasm from the Green Room Awards.

The original film, a regular on "best ever movies" and "see before you die" lists, is a masterpiece of 1960s Swedish weirdness about a nurse caring for an actress who has withdrawn entirely from her life to the point of never speaking. The nurse's interactions with the omnipresent but perpetually disengaged woman create a haunting rumination on identity and the ways people can be dehumanised by roles placed upon them.

Working from an English translation of the screenplay, director Adena Jacobs has sought to create a uniquely theatrical version of this strange journey into the psyche. Judging by the reception the show got on its first run, the result is something remarkable. We recommend you see it for yourself, though we take no responsibility for any existential quandary or blowing of mind you may incur as a result.