Fanny and Alexander

Act 1

Christmas at the Ekdahls. Helena, the matriarch of the family, awaits her family’s return
from the annual nativity pageant. A parade of relatives floods the decorated house. We meet Oscar and Emilie and their children Fanny and Alexander, as well as Oscar’s brothers Carl and Gustav Adolf, alongside their respective wives, Lydia and Alma. The holiday celebration also welcomes the family friend Isak Jacobi, a paramour of Helena’s from many years prior. Oscar, being the eldest son, gives a Christmas toast, and becomes flush, the family believing that he has just had too much to drink.

Days later, while rehearsing for a production of Hamlet, Oscar suffers a fatal heart attack on stage. After Oscar’s death, Emilie takes time to consider her future, ultimately deciding to remarry. She takes as her husband the town’s Bishop, who has one request: that she and the children leave everything behind.

Young Fanny and Alexander are uprooted from the warmth of the theatrical Ekdahl clan and move into the Bishop’s home. Bishop Edvard Vergerus proves to be a strict disciplinarian, raising the children with a rigidity that they are unaccustomed to. The children are also introduced to Justina, a long-serving housekeeper who aligns herself with the cruelty of the Bishop. She tells the children about the Bishop’s two daughters, who died a tragic death. When Alexander reveals to Justina that he saw the apparitions of the two girls, the maid alerts the Bishop to Alexander’s lies, who seeks to extract a confession from Alexander by means of a severe beating. Alexander is locked away in the attic to reflect on his behaviour.

Act 2

The two apparitions appear to Alexander, seemingly wanting to drive Alexander mad.
With Emilie discouraged about the abusive discipline of her children at the hands of her new husband, and the knowledge that the children would legally belong to the Bishop if she fled, Isak tries to help Fanny and Alexander escape. Isak makes a deal with the Bishop to buy a large wooden chest. When the Bishop finalizes the contract, Isak unlocks Alexander from the attic and hides the two children in the chest, easily walking them out of the Bishop’s home.

Isak brings them to his home, a fantastical world of puppets and theatrical magic. It is here that Alexander meets one of Isak’s two sons, Aron, and is told of the other son Ismael, an enigmatic figure with mystical powers that force him to lead a solitary life. While Fanny and Alexander are safe at Isak’s, Carl and Gustav Adolf meet with the Bishop to negotiate Emilie’s divorce. The Bishop remains unyielding and demands them to return the stepchildren to him. No deal is made.

Late at night, Alexander wanders around the house and finds himself in the company of Ismael, who calls himself dangerous with awkward talents. The two have a spiritual communion where Ismael reads Alexander’s mind, filled with inner rage and hatred for the Bishop. Back at the Bishop’s home, Emilie drugs her husband with bromide, giving her enough time to escape his clutches. In his drugged stupor, the Bishop knocks over a kerosene lamp, lighting himself and his home on fire.

Months later the Ekdahls join as a family once more, welcoming Emilie, Fanny, Alexander, and a new baby back into the fold.