Displaying items by tag: HEDDA GABLER

An Ibsen play on a cold winter’s evening just feels right. Marti Lyons delivers a stylish (and concise) production of “Hedda Gabler” at Remy Bumppo. With an impressive cast of Remy Bumppo ensemble and new faces, this 100-minute version gets right to the point.

Among the countless translations and adaptations of “Hedda Gabler” that have been written, Christopher Shinn’s version makes a bold, modern statement. Taken from a literal adaptation by Anne-Charlotte Hanes Harvey, this telling dispenses with Ibsen’s ambiguity almost entirely. Classic melodramas tend to run long and in this day and age, audiences easily grow frustrated with overly long plays laden with innuendo. Shinn’s version is structured in a way that modern audiences will take more from. While the Shinn script may not have been a success on Broadway in 2009 (even with Mary Louise Parker), Marti Lyons’ revival strikes the right balance with it.

Ensemble member Annabel Armour as Aunt Tesman has the first lines and immediately sets the tone of the new Tesman home, a vibe that’s somewhere between charming and unsettling. Armour captures something both aspirational and pitiful about the character in her reliably masterful way. In this telling, Hedda, who is played by Aurora Real de Asua, is feral, almost manic. Her short temper is always shown through smiling teeth and far-off looks. Hedda here is more certain of feeling trapped in a bad marriage. It’s less of a revelation and more of a palpable sense of dread. The only female character that seems to threaten Hedda is Thea Elvsted played by Gloria Imseih Petrelli, whose raw vulnerability is a counter to Hedda’s rampant cruelty.

Greg Matthew Anderson plays the blackmailing judge Brack with such dastardly charm, it’s almost hard to see what Hedda objects to. In the same way Thea is the counter of Hedda, Ejlert Lovborg (Felipe Carrasco) is the helplessly vulnerable of the two men. Carrasco’s performance is also that of a condemned man. In other scripts, this acceptance comes at a more laborious price. Here his conflict with conventional society feels urgent from the start.

Remy Bumppo brings a lot of humor to “Hedda Gabler”. Hedda’s one-liners have always been amusing, in the same mean-spiritedness of an Albee play. Linda Gillum brings a lot of physical comedy as Berte, the Tesman’s quirky maid. Shinn’s script has a sharp sense of wit, even if the somewhat frank sexual metaphors seem closer to 2026 than 1891.

Along with a more forwardly grown-up script, Kotryna Hilko and Joe Schermoly’s costumes and sets are bathed in a moody purple and when paired with Christopher Kriz' electrifying incidental music brings on the feeling of an impending storm.

“Hedda Gabler” is a divisive play. You can either see her as a victim or a spoiled villain. Shinn makes that decision for you, in at-times clunky divulgences. This particular version might not find you quibbling over the character’s true wants or intentions. Instead, Shinn is cutting away the excess so audiences can focus on the powerful statement Ibsen was making before most women knew true autonomy.

Through March 8 at Remy Bumppo at Theatre Wit. 1229 W Belmont Ave. 773-975-8150

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‘Hedda Gabler’ has mystified audiences for generations, as this was certainly Ibsen’s intention when creating this endlessly fascinating character. The Artistic Home transforms the Den Theatre into 1890s Norway for their production of Irish playwright Mark O’Rowe’s 2015 adaptation of ‘Hedda Gabler’. Under Monica Payne’s direction, this contemporary-voiced retelling is diabolically humorous.

Any production of ‘Hedda Gabler’ is only as good as their Hedda. In Brookelyn Hebert, Monica Payne has a frighteningly self-assured Hedda who is insatiably fun to watch. Flanked by Todd Wocjik as Jorge Tesman and John Mossman as Judge Brack, Hebert plays both the conqueror and conquered with hot tempered fluidity.

Ibsen, like Chekhov, helped usher in a new era of modern theatre that would inspire 20th century playwrights like Arthur Miller and Eugene O’Neill. With focus on the doldrums of a waning aristocracy, Ibsen captures the everyday hopes and disappointments of his characters in scenes that feel as relevant today as when they were written.

What makes ‘Hedda Gabler’ unique is the myriads of ways a director and an actress can approach the title role. Ibsen’s play is somewhat vague so that audiences and theater makers are free to go with their own interpretation of what motivates Hedda.

In this new version by Mark O’Rowe, many of the Easter eggs Ibsen drops throughout the play are further expanded upon so that audiences have even more context for Hedda’s past and present. In Rowe’s version, Hedda is quicker to anger and more self-aware than in previous iterations. An angrier Hedda shows the brewing hostility of a woman trapped by society, which makes her downfall all the more tragic.

Time seems to fly with O’Rowe’s modern language. Instead of literary innuendo, characters are free to discuss sexuality and substance abuse with more directness. Two and a half hours can feel long for a classic melodrama, but this script has a lot of juicy scene work to keep audiences on the edge of their seat, even if they know what’s going to happen next.

Plays like ‘Hedda Gabler’ do exactly what good plays should, and that is to ask why. As mentioned before, Ibsen purposefully did not provide just one reason for Hedda’s actions, rather he planted many seeds so that nobody can really be sure, opening the door for riveting conversations.

The Artistic Home’s production of ‘Hedda Gabler’ is a good reminder of why classics should be seen every so often. Though the modernized script takes some interesting liberties, and can become a bit meandering in parts, overall Ibsen’s points are well preserved. However, it’s fairly unlikely that high society folks would speak in expletives the way they are in O’Rowe’s script. Still, this production is faithful in its interpretation of the limits of courage. In the end, despite Ibsen’s Easter eggs, this is a play about one woman’s courage to go against the grain of society.

Through March 23 at The Artistic Home at The Den. 1331 N Milwaukee Ave. 773-697-3830