INGMAR BERGMAN (1918 - 2007) was one of the world's great film-makers. The son of a Lutheran pastor he worked in the theatre before directing his first film, Crisis, in 1945. His powerful films are often marked by bleak depictions of human loneliness, although one of them, Smiles of a Summer Night, was the basis of Stephen Sondheim's celebrated musical A Little Night Music.

JENNY WORTON is the Artistic Associate at the Almeida Theatre. She was previously the literary manager at the Tricycle Theatre and worked for the literary departments of the Bush Theatre and the National Theatre.