Hedda Gabler, May 15, 2008

Hedda Gabler

By Henrik Ibsen, PMD Productions

Chapel off Chapel,  May 15 to 31, 2008

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen is a seminal play for its time and boasts productions starring Cate Blanchett and, in years gone by, Diana Rigg.

To risk such comparisons, a new company should be confident that they got it right. Unfortunately, this PMD production gets too many things wrong.

Although director Paul Knox modernises the context and content of Ibsen’s 1890 play, this is not the main problem with the production. His editing of the script omits much needed detail that contributes to Hedda’s story and causes dramatic action to leap forward clumsily.

Hedda (Miranda McGee) returns from a six-month honeymoon in Florence with Jorgen Tesman (Tyson White), her rather dull but ambitious academic husband. She despairs of a future of boredom, living in a house she loathes with a husband she neither respects nor loves and an interfering aunt (Brenda McKinty). When Lovborg, her former lover, returns, Hedda’s irrational quest for a beautiful and romantic end spirals out of control.

What is missing in this lacklustre production is Hedda’s inner turmoil, the Freudian complexity of her psychological landscape that made this play controversial in its time and allows it to survive over a century of reinterpretation and criticism.

Miranda McGee captures only one side of this dark and complicated character.

Her Hedda is relentlessly angry, nasty and manipulative but any sense of motivation, confusion, despair or alienation is sadly lacking. Her persistent hand wringing and surliness do not provide sufficient detail to a woman who should be a magnificent thoroughbred.

The director and most of his cast are out of their depth. A significant exception is Matthew Kenny as the troubled but brilliant academic, Elliott (Ejlert) Lovborg. The moment Kenny walks on stage he brings energy, commitment and truth. The inner chaos of this recovering alcoholic who struggles with his demons is palpable. Unfortunately, he is unsupported by the rest of the cast apart from McKinty who brings some dignity to Aunt Julia.

Knox’s interpretation of Ibsen is simplistic and a clumsy set does not assist this production. Hedda and Jorgen’s grand home looks like a shabby flat filled with bad furniture. A more abstract and atmospheric set design, lighting and sound might create a more evocative environment and mood.

When a group of teenagers laugh at Hedda shooting herself off stage, it is evident that this tragedy has lost its way.