After the Rehearsal

Plot summary

Rational, exacting, and self-controlled theater director, Henrik Vogler, often stays after rehearsal to think and plan. On this day, Anna comes back, ostensibly looking for a bracelet. She is the lead in his new production of Strindberg's A Dream Play. She talks of her hatred for her mother (now dead), an alcoholic actress who was Vogler's star and lover. Vogler falls into a reverie, remembering a day Anna's mother, Rakel, late in life, came after rehearsal to beg him to come to her apartment. He awakes and Anna reveals the reason she has returned: she jolts him into an emotional response, rare for him, and the feelings of a young woman and an older man play out.

Cast

(Tartan DVD release of this film erroneously lists "Liv Ullmann" as one of the three main stars. Ullmann is not in this film)

Reception

After the Rehearsal received strongly positive reviews from critics, garnering a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Vincent Canby wrote that it "may well be another Bergman classic." Roger Ebert gave it a full four stars and argued that the work "consists of unadorned surfaces concealing fathomless depths."