Hedda Gabler

Synopsis

Anna Mackmin returns to The Old Vic to open the 12/13 season directing Brian Friel’s adaptation of Ibsen’s seminal work, Hedda Gabler. Olivier Award-winner, Sheridan Smith stars in the title role of this major new production alongside Buffy Davis, Anne Reid, Adrian Scarborough and Fenella Woolgar.

Ibsens classic drama is the story of a woman consumed by her passions and driven to destroy all she should love. Hedda's recent and unexpected marriage to worthy but dull academic Tesman is threatened when she returns from honeymoon to find that Lovborg, a charismatic but dissolute previous admirer, has reformed his ways and published a best-selling masterpiece. His now-found success now threatens Tesman's own claim to a professorship - which is his only hope of supporting Hedda in the style she demands. Tesman is already in debt to another of Hedda's admirers, the dangerous Judge Brack. But suddenly events seem to put Hedda in a position to control all their destinies. This is a blistering examination of a woman in turmoil.

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Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 13 September 2012

I can understand Sheridan Smith feeling cowed by the role of Hedda Gabler, but I'm surprised she's not risen wholeheartedly to the challenge. Her performance is, of course, graceful and seductive, full of sly winks and put-downs, neatly embodied in a figure-hugging slate blue dress and a pendant curly hair-piece down her right cheek.

But she's never fully commanding as a woman seizing her own destiny after that tedious honeymoon with George Tesman. She's a butterfly spirit, not an exotic bird. And she's curiously muffled when she pushes her voice out instead of really collaring the lines in Brian Friel's text (his “version” comes with no credit for the literal translation), written for the Gate in Dublin four years ago.

Instead, director Anna Mackmin (also responsible for that Gate premiere, with a different cast) gives her an ar...

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Latest User Review

Paul Wallis - 10 November 2012:

Wow, what an incredible evening of theatre. Every aspect of Hedda Gabler is top class. Sets, lighting and costumes are stunning and there isn't s weak link in the cast, led by the outstanding Sheridan Smith who delivers a devastating performance. She is fast becoming one of our great stage actresses. This production is theatre at its very best. ...

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