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Hedda Gabler is the scion of a wealthy and powerful aristocratic family. She has recently married Jürgen Tesman, a rising academic, and the couple have just returned from a six month extended honeymoon. They are welcomed home by Jürgen's Aunt Julle, but Hedda is rude and plays a cruel trick on her. Jürgen implores her to be kinder, but with little effect. Soon after the couple's return Mrs. Elvsted arrives with the news that Jürgen's old academic rival, Ejlert Lövborg, a reformed alcoholic and failure, is back in town. Mrs. Elvsted is enamoured of Lövborg and is afraid that in town he will not be able to resist the temptation to start drinking again, and wishes to enlist Jürgen's aid in preventing this. After Mrs. Elvsted leaves, Dr Brackman arrives to invite Jürgen to a social evening and to tell him he has a rival for the vacant professorship at the University, Ejlert Lövborg.
And so the scene is set. As events unfold it soon becomes apparent that for Hedda her marriage to Jürgen is more one of convenience than of love, and already she is bored with her husband and bored with her life, even the child she is carrying is only one more burden to tie her down. Her only pleasure, it seems, is meddling in the affairs of others. She befriends Mrs. Elvsted only to turn against her and use her in her cruel games to destroy Lövborg. Why? For the sake of a husband she does not love? Furthermore, there are hints that her relationship with Dr Brackman once went beyond mere friendship and perhaps still does. But Hedda is playing a dangerous game, descending into depravity on a downward spiral that can only lead to tragedy.
The entire play takes place in the Tesman's living room and in a smaller room seperated by curtains beyond. This is a beautifully built set, with deep burgundy walls, rich red curtains and beautiful period furniture (the centrepiece being a red leather chaise longue) all arranged on a roughly circular stage. The costumes are equally admirable and totally in keeping with the period. Hedda wears three dresses, the first, a mid blue floor length creation being the most attractive.
This is a powerful drama, with an especially strong title role. Ibsen was one of the few writers of his day to write such dramatic roles for women, as in his other classic piece "A Doll's House" (a production of which was staged at the Playhouse last year). On this occasion a little humour here and there provides a welcome counterpoint to the drama.
Gillian Kearney's Hedda is a mean spirited bully, a master manipulator who understands the consequences of her actions yet cannot resist acting upon her cruel impulses. But at the same time she is a coward, fearful of her reputation in particular. Gillian is superb in this, tall and slender she strides around the stage with an imperious grace and wry smile that makes her role utterly beleivable. Tom Smith's Jürgen meanwhile is a somewhat naive character, eager to please but obsessed with his studies to the neglect of his wife, and so perhaps contributing to her downfall. Least experienced of the cast, Polly Maberly as Thea Elvsted nevertheless came second only to Miss Kearney in the acting credits. Her Thea was a weak and somewhat pathetic character, but a good and true spirit, and a perfect target for Hedda's vitriol. Daniel Weyman gave a good workmanlike performance as Lövborg but for me was not wholly convincing in the role, his reactions to Hedda's goadings lacking true conviction. Jasper Britton on the other hand was a thoroughly enjoyable Dr Brackman, a man with few scruples though lacking Hedda's mean spirit. Jane Lowe also gave a good performance as the well-meaning but interfering Aunt Julle, her interchanges with the obtuse Tesman trying to discover if a child might be on the way raised a few laughs along the way. Imogen Bain completed the cast as the bustling maid, Berte.
A moving, witty and well staged production of Ibsen's classic tragedy.