About the work
Fanny und Alexander is based on Ingmar Bergman's 1982 film "Fanny och Alexander", a semi-autobiographical family epic that Bergman conceived as his farewell to filmmaking. Several stage adaptations exist; the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus production by Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson (German translation by Renate Bleibtreu, premiering 19 September 2026) interweaves Bergman's family story with scenes from Shakespeare.
Plot
Siblings Fanny and Alexander grow up around 1900 in a well-off theatre family in Uppsala. After their father's death, their mother marries a strict, ascetic bishop, and in his austere household the children are bound by joyless rules. Young Alexander meets this new harshness with imagination and storytelling, in which reality and invention increasingly blend.
Cultural significance
The film won four Academy Awards in 1984, including Best Foreign Language Film, and is considered one of the major works of Bergman's late career. The material continues to be adapted for the stage internationally, including at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus.