Stage adaptation of Ingmar Bergman minseries has an intriguing setup with three sets of actors, but ultimately isn’t that interesting

Like the union of Marianne and Johan that disintegrates from accord to acrimony to “sign the divorce papers,” the stage version of Ingmar Bergman’s 1973 miniseries begins intriguingly but ends up being less than happily-ever-after. The TV version, famous for its close-up, we’ve-all-been-there banality, played out chronologically. But that’s not director Ivo van Hove’s approach. Working from Emily Mann’s adaptation, the Belgian van Hove casts the couple in triplicate — with Susannah Flood and Alex Hurt as the youngest Marianne and Johan; Roslyn Ruff and Dallas Roberts as the duo in middle age, and Tina Benko and Arliss Howard as the most mature Marianne and Johan. There’s no effort to cast actors who look alike. In the more interesting first half, the audience is split into three groups and seated in separate rooms — private except for a window that looks into a central area as a half-hour conversation goes on.