Markus Öhrn's Bloody Playmobil Take on Bergman's 'Scenes from a Marriage'

Swedish director Markus Öhrn adapts Ingmar Bergman's 1973 TV series 'Scenes from a Marriage' at the Théâtre de l'Odéon in Paris, using white masks with ping-pong ball eyes, wigs, and metallic voice distortion to create a shock aesthetic. The four-scene play stars French actors Hélène Morelli and Mathieu Perotto as Marianne and Jean, who start as sterile Playmobil-like figures in a clinical white set. Each scene descends from serenity into gore: a bloody fetus emerges from Marianne's nightgown, attached by an umbilical cord, and the couple hurls it like a rugby ball, splattering the white walls. Öhrn, originally a visual artist, fills the pristine space with blood, excrement, and bruises. The production premiered at the Odéon, one of Europe's finest Italian-style theaters, and references the original series' impact in Sweden, where it sparked a wave of divorces. The performance is cruel, shocking, and humorous, not for the faint-hearted.