Characters
- Fredrik Egerman: A successful widowed middle-aged lawyer. He is married to the 18-year-old Anne and has one son from his previous marriage, Henrik.
- Anne Egerman: Fredrik's new, naive wife.
- Henrik Egerman: Fredrik's son, 20 years old and Anne's stepson. He is serious but confused, as he reads the works of philosophers and theologians as he studies for the Lutheran priesthood.
- Petra: Anne's maid and closest confidante.
- Desiree Armfeldt: Self-absorbed, once-successful actress, now touring the country-side in what is clearly not the "glamorous life".
- Fredrika Armfeldt: Desiree's thirteen-year-old daughter, who may or may not be the product (unbeknownst to Fredrik) of the actress's and Fredrik's affair.
- Madame Armfeldt: Desiree's mother, who has had "liaisons" with royalty.
- Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm: A military dragoon who is Desiree's latest lover.
- Charlotte Malcolm: Carl-Magnus' wife.
- Frid: Madame Armfeldt's manservant.
- The Quintet: Mr. Lindquist, Mrs. Nordstrom, Mrs. Anderssen, Mr. Erlanson and Mrs. Segstrom. A group of five singers that act as a Greek chorus. Sometimes referred to as the Liebeslieder Singers although Sondheim and Wheeler did not script them to have that title, using Quintet instead. The first usage of Liebeslieders for the Quintet came during the 1990 New York Opera production. Prince said that these characters represent "people in the show who aren't wasting time ... the play is about wasting time."
Read more about this topic: A Little Night Music
Famous quotes containing the word characters:
“His leanings were strictly lyrical, descriptions of nature and emotions came to him with surprising facility, but on the other hand he had a lot of trouble with routine items, such as, for instance, the opening and closing of doors, or shaking hands when there were numerous characters in a room, and one person or two persons saluted many people.”
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“A criminal trial is like a Russian novel: it starts with exasperating slowness as the characters are introduced to a jury, then there are complications in the form of minor witnesses, the protagonist finally appears and contradictions arise to produce drama, and finally as both jury and spectators grow weary and confused the pace quickens, reaching its climax in passionate final argument.”
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“It is open to question whether the highly individualized characters we find in Shakespeare are perhaps not detrimental to the dramatic effect. The human being disappears to the same degree as the individual emerges.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)