Hedda Gabler

Synopsis

Classic drama 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.

Our Review:

1 November 2001

For an actress, Hedda Gabler is a plum of a role. And in this latest Royal Exchange outing, as part of its high-powered 25th anniversary season, Amanda Donohoe relishes every last bite of this juicily tormented and complex part.

Ibsen's drama was written in 1890, but it's situation remains familiar to many who are constrained by social institutions and expectations. Recently returned from a six-month honeymoon, Hedda realises her respectable new life is not the pleasurable doddle she expected but rather a dull and bourgeois trap. To combat her boredom, she resorts to playing manipulative mind games with those around her, which leads to further problems with her old lover Eilert Loevborg James Clyde, for whom she still has feelings, and the conniving Judge Brack Terence Wilton.

As husband George and Aunt Julia, Simon Robson and Avril Elgar set up the story convincingly in the first scene. And then Donohoe steps into the round. And what an entrance! From that mome...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com - 3 November 2001:

I can't believe I saw the same production as the previous reviewer. It hurts me to be unkind about the Royal Exchange, as it really did use to be the most exciting space in Britain, but I'm afraid it is now the blandest, reduced to an endless succession of frocks and furniture shows, and I'm sorry, this just is not good enough. I have never seen such a dull Hedda, or a more inaudible one. You'd think it hard to be inaudible in a space like this, but even four rows back the first scene came across as dumbshow. Even in this theatre some projection is still necessary. Extroardinarly clumsy blocking, no sense of any rhythm or worst of all in this play, not sense of danger. A ridiculously fussy set that pretty much alienated the audience. And some very dull acting indeed. This is a very lazy production. Dammit, the Royal Exchange needs some new blood, as the recent productions have been very predictable and deadly dull...and I'll happily say this to their faces, in the hope that it might kick start them to attract an audience for those under 40 (not many of those in the performance I saw). I used to get excited just being in this theatre, now I feel almost a duty to go there. We do deserve better than this, much better. Barry Purves...

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