Figura błazna jako alter ego Bergmana w teatrze

One of Bergman’s favourite figures was the jester or the clown. When appearing on stage, they gather the whole attention of both audience and other characters. In theatre productions Bergman used three strategies to express his fondness for this figure – he either emphasized jesters already existing in the text of the drama, provided other characters with clownish features (both visual and mental), or he even created clown-like figures and added them to the original drama. This was done not only to stress comic aspects, but mainly to expose the psychological complexity of the personalities of these figures. In my article, I analyse all three levels of this phenomenon in productions of Shakespeare, Ibsen and Gombrowicz, trying to find the source of inspiration behind them, as well as a common thread between them.