The fascination of Hedda Gabler, the “female Hamlet” that divides opinion

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When Hedda landed on the London stage, also in 1891, the first British production played a major role in enhancing the play’s standing in wider Europe. Although Ibsen’s work was “taboo,” Shepherd says, actress Elizabeth Robins set out to put on a lavish show at the Independent Theater—a small-scale venue where more avant-garde works were performed to avoid “censorship” elsewhere in the major theatres. “[Her production] He brought a kind of skill to Ibsen that people did not expect, and they could not brush him aside as an old-fashioned, archaic, or boring playwright. “It was elegant and terrifying at the same time,” Shepherd says.

Scientific

This sense of wonder, fever, and sensuality that may have since been lost in more recent revivals is something DaCosta’s version attempts to channel. “Private [productions] “I saw it as very traditional, very strict, and I didn’t really delve into the humor that I saw in the piece, the erotic aspects of it and the depth of the psychology,” the director explains.[Hedda] He finds it impossible [to deal with] What she sees in others is that everyone is lying and pretending, even though she is the best pretender ever. I think she sees it as a survival tactic. But there were a lot of other dynamic things about her that attracted me to her, like her many masks, […] Her weakness, her pain, her sadness, her feelings of being trapped.”

Heida’s set is full of mirrors, serving as a reminder that the characters reflect each other’s qualities. Over the course of this frenetic night of celebration, the three women – Hedda, Eileen and Thea – battle against each other and make their various bids for power. “You have these three women who are all trying to figure out what freedom is, asking the same questions that Hedda asks in the play,” DaCosta says.