Writer: Andrew Whittle adapted from Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler
What a performance! The acting and plot of this reworking of Ibsen’s play Hedda Gabler will keep you fully engaged for the 2 hours and 40 minutes of this dramatic production directed by Andrew Whittle.
‘Here to There Productions’ is a travelling theatre company and their polished performance of this classic drama is a tribute to their professionalism. The company has now revived this classic from Whittle’s 2023 adaptation to offer it to a wider audience. They are a small, independent English theatre company bringing productions to rural venues in England and this is their first venture across to Ireland.
The lighting and sound by Carl Walker create a mood of foreboding and amplify the play’s intense atmosphere. The sumptuous costumes designed by Jules Woodman stand out against the lavish set created by Chris Bassett and Seedbed Studios, a feast for the mind which immerses the audience in a claustrophobic enclosed milieu reflecting the narrow society of Ibsen’s Norway in the 1890s.
The cast is well chosen and interpret their characters with assured aplomb. From Dawn Bush’s earthy portrayal of the elderly family factotum Bertha, through the sympathy arousing performance of Melanie Revill’s as the doting aunt Juliana Tesman, to James Parsons’s suave depiction of the smooth talking Judge Brack, each character comes alive as a believable personality with human flaws. Whilst the individuals presented may inspire distaste at their duplicity or scepticism at their naivety, the audience becomes wholly involved in their lives and concerned for their long-term outcomes.
David Hubball as George Tesman, plays an enthusiastic and gullible young husband to perfection. Opposite him, Alan Mirren plays his old chum and professional adversary, Eilert Lovborg, with befitting vim and vigour. The intricate intertwining of the lives of these two men emerge through their relationships with women and multiple forward and backward links enrich the plot. However, it is the female characters, Hedda and Thea, that are the main focus of the drama.
Lucy Sheree Cooper plays Hedda and throughout the four acts the complexity of her background is gradually revealed. Does an emotionally devoid childhood stunt a person’s growth such that it excuses manipulative behaviours? And does the exploitation by men excuse goading to irreversible acts?
Hedda’s former schoolmate Thea, played by Pearl Schomberg, has thrived through her interactions with others and, apparently, has escaped a circumscribed lifestyle. In 1890s Norway, women faced limited choices for their adulthoods. The impact of these curtailed options and the depictions of social constraints and powerlessness paint a picture of female lives thwarted by society. The desire for power and the wish to influence others underlies choices the characters make. Both Hedda and Thea wrestle with the possibility of leaving boring, restricted lives and embracing an alternative one. The courage to defy expectations takes a divergent route for both of these female characters that fills the stage with drama and passion.
Hedda is now playing in three venues in Ireland, Naas, Dundrum and Belfast. It would be a crime to miss it.
Runs Until August 23rd 2025.
