Originally the play was intended as a training text for theatre students at the Malmö City Theatre, but Bergman made an official staging at Theatre Intiman in Malmo. The play was part of a full evening program along with two other one-act plays: "End of the World" by Sigvard Mårtensson and "Shuttlecock" by Lars-Levi Laestadius.
"Trämålning" (Wood Painting) is a paraphrase of a medieval altarpiece. There are different figures: a knight, a squire, a woman with children, a witch, a young girl, a fool, a blacksmith and his wife. A youth dressed in black playing on tilt and tells the terrible story of the plague. The altarpiece was restored in the theatre by the group appeared as a silhouette to the audience before the curtain went up with the different persons temporarily frozen in various expressive poses. The play is about how they try to escape the plague. Finally, they dance all down to hell led by a skeleton; a symbol of death.
This theme of the fool and death clashing, where the devil is the director, go back later in the film "The Seventh Seal". Although this is a long dance led by death as an expressive image. This is a clear example of how Bergman's schedule style is found in both theatre and film. There have been four Swedish official sets of "Trämålning" (Wood Painting):The first directed the Bergman Swedish Radio Theatre. The other he also addressed himself to the Malmö City Theatre. Later Bengt Ekerot staged his version at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm and last, Lennart Olsson made a TV version.