Hedda Gabler - NT / UK tour.

I thought this was a brilliant production - clear, illuminating, totally in harmony with the spirit of the piece, resolving virtually all of its problematic elements. And Ruth Wilson is stunning.

A few points:

This was the most sympathetic portrayal of Hedda I have seen, in part because of Wilson whose realization of Hedda's own desperate self-loathing is so deeply felt throughout. But also because of the staging and design.

The production begins a half hour before the curtain goes up (figuratively) with Hedda onstage noodling at the piano, slumped in her dressing gown, a woman already in torment. A woman, just back from her honeymoon, who has surrendered to her fate, who does not even bother now to get dressed. The big entrance she usually gets with her sneering and her "what a dump" attitude, followed by her gratuitously cruel remark about Aunt Juliana's hat, has been undercut here by van Hove's mise-en-scene so that we already know that her nastiness and her lashing out come from a place of pain and hopelessness. And we can empathize.

This is reinforced by the big empty white room which is the Tesman apartment, a prison from which the only way out is to exit out of the play itself, into the audience. Berte, the maid, seated onstage, watching everything, is her warder - and, later, accomplice. The other characters have lives outside, Hedda does not. She is trapped, and permanently so.

Hedda is the archetypal 19th century woman, which is to say, she has no power. Power comes through men and she thought she had chosen, in Tesman, a man through whom she could achieve it. Tesman, of course, is usually played as something of a fool, an older man, a no hoper, which always reflects badly on Hedda's judgment. But that is not the case here. Kyle Soller is a young, handsome, virile man, a plausible match for her. That he falls short of her expectations amplifies her tragedy. We can understand her crushing disappointment.

The other character who seems transformed for the better is Judge Brack. As played by the excellent Rafe Spall he is not so much the arrogant town plutocrat whose good manners and sleek style are a cover for the bullying sociopath he eventually reveals himself to be. Instead he is a looming evil presence throughout, a veritable Mephistopheles. If this cuts down on his character arc it underlines Hedda's predicament. The ending of the play is foreshadowed from the beginning. Given these people and her situation, there is no other way things could have gone for her.

And, by the way, the ending, especially Brack's final line, which has been known to get laughs in other productions, works spectacularly well here. It's a breathtaking moment and the perfect climax to the drama.

Bravo to all concerned.

Spooky.

Is there also a flying saucer?

We felt the same way.  

And the ending was very much laughable to us.  They made no effort to make those, let's face it, slightly ridiculous sounding final lines, make more sense or be in any way moving. All stilted and placed bodies.

From the moment Rafe Spall's Brack started going psycho (tomato sauce time onwards), it lost us.  

Ruth Wilson was cold, yet impossible not to watch.  

Ivo van Hove seems to specialise in clinical productions.  The heating never seems to be on in his shows…if that makes sense?

I saw this one recently on Friday Rush. It is a quirky system and it takes a couple of weeks to work out how to navigate it optimally. The seats they offer for this production are terrible though, far back corners of the circle (this is not the case for all productions) and a small part of the stage is not visible. My estimate is that they make about 15-20 seats available in this way.

On the play, as has been noted the interpretation of Hedda and (especially) Judge Brack are very different to how they are usually done and so interesting. I saw this play and Mary Stuart back to back - strikingly similar direction.

Friday Rush'd a few weeks back, as mentioned they are at the back of the circle but view etc is fine wherever you sit. I went to get dayseats for Love last weekend and most people were still able to get Hedder tickets on a  2 show day if they turned up around 9am.


I couldn't get past the interval of this though, so I would advise not wasting your time but that's another matter! 

Ruth Wilson made a speech tonight at the curtain call, referencing the march today in support of women's rights. She highlighted that Ibsen was writing about these issues over a century ago and that their performance represented them marching in solidarity with those who protested in the streets. She walked off in tears by the looks of it.

Self entitled wealthy actors

Making political speeches

NOT a good thing

Embarrassing and inappropriate


What a shame she didn't channel such emotion into the performance people have paid to see

Agree. She's paid to perform and she shouldn't abuse her position to hector a captive audience (99.99% of whom agree with her anyway). It's like travelling on Southern Rail and having the driver come on the intercom and denounce the government's transport policy. Just incidentally it seems her commitment to women's rights didn't extend as far as questioning the director's motivation for his handling of this play which could easily be argued to be misogynistic.

However, as newspaper reviews and others here have commented, the production is unique in making her totally unsympathetic right from the start.

Ruth Wilson

Has no political standing

She can keep her mouth shut whilst she is being paid to try and act

She should concentrate on the job in hand

Or if she is so concerned

She can go into politics

And let's see how far she gets

It is easy to proclaim forth on a stage in a controlled environment when your ego gets the better of you

And it's totally self indulgent

As I bet she got a round of applause and people went "bravo" and "hear hear"

The people marching should pop over to Iraq Syria or one of the many other countries f***ed up by our own ex prime ministers


They can see the Human rights which are violated on a daily basis regardless of gender

Donald Trump is such an easy media target
Yet his robust nature and constitution

Means he just won't care

Wow, I am quite surprised to hear the negativity about the speech. She clearly spoke on behalf of the company but meant what she said or had to say - I was sitting in the front row of the stalls and she had tears in her eyes when they walked off stage.
Nobody was forced to applaud after it but everyone did.

Otherwise the production and her performance is fantastic, especially in Act 2 - I was with a group of friends and we will be back day seating again.