This year marks the 100th anniversary of the death of the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Throughout 2006, events are being held in various locales around the globe, highlighting the importance and continued influence of Ibsen's work. According to the Norwegian Embassy, at least one of his plays will be performed on a stage somewhere in the world every single day, even in Hailey where the Company of Fools are presenting "Hedda Gabler."
Directed by Robert Throckmorton and featuring Denise Simone in the title role, "Hedda" is a classic psychological drama.
"It's a change of pace," Throckmorton admits, after having just directed two comedies. "You can get your hands dirty. (Unlike broad comedy) it's not what's being done but what's being thought. And how to externalize that for the audience."
A world-class dramatist comparable with Shakespeare, Ibsen at the turn of the last century was increasingly interested in portraying human emotions and modern sensibility as they really were. And his creation of Hedda, a woman struggling in a patriarchal society, was the apex of the contradictions between ability and desire.
Written in 1890, "Hedda Gabler" is smart and dense, populated with compelling and conflicted characters. At the opening of the play, Hedda and her new husband, George Tessman, have just returned from a six-month-long honeymoon in Europe.
Ibsen said he called the play "Hedda Gabler" rather than "Hedda Tessman" to make the point that she is her father's daughter rather than her husband's wife. As a military man of the old school, General Gabler left her naught but pistols and a code of honor in which death is preferable to dishonor, none of which serves her as a wife. Indeed, she is bored but in that antsy way of strong women. She wants something to happen and she stirs the pot until it does. But Hedda has one very big obstacle to success: She is terrified of scandal.
In the course of the play it becomes apparent that she is also unhappy with her new husband. Nevertheless, she becomes pregnant. At the same time, Tessman learns he has competition for an academic post and it's with one of Hedda's former admirers. Eilert Løvborg is an alcoholic who wasn't quite up to snuff for the Gablers, but in recent years has cleaned himself up and been writing with great success. At the beginning of the play, he has arrived in the city, bringing a manuscript with him and a former classmate of Hedda's who has left her husband to be with him. In the course of barely two days, aching to be free of her middle-class husband, things turn in dramatic ways.
"There's a violent vicariousness in her actions," Throckmorton said. "Why does she do the things she does? She's a woman caught in a world she probably shouldn't be in."
Simone admits to being challenged by this role as countless actresses have been before her. From Elenora Duse, Ingrid Bergman, Eva LeGallienne, Glenda Jackson and Diana Rigg to current stage mavens Cate Blanchett and Kate Burton, playing Hedda is the apex of a life in theater, the way Hamlet is for men.
Of course, it is still Ibsen, and therefore fairly heady stuff, but the stiff language of the day has been updated somewhat by a new translation by Jon Robin Baitz.
"The great thing about this translation is that it's more universal," Throckmorton said. "(Baitz) has taken it out of 19th century conventions, loosened it up and made it more accessible. But it still holds true to what's in the script. "
Simone shakes her head, wondering what induced her to take on this challenge. "It's a beautiful, claustrophobic, maddening world."
Hedda may have been a pre-feminist, if it weren't for her delusional mean-spirited inability to leave everyone alone. She manipulates and bullies; she's the anti-heroine.
The cast includes Rich Rush as Tessman, Frank Medina as Lovborg, Jana Arnold, Marilyn Tietge, Jennifer Jacoby Rush and Joel Vilinsky.
The set design, which is suitably Norweigan in its modern starkness, is by Dennis Rexroad.
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Ibsen in Hailey
"Hedda Gabler" by Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Jon Robin Baitz, will be performed at the Liberty Theatre in Hailey from Feb. 15 through March 5. Wednesday and Thursday show time is 7 p.m. Feb. 15 is a "Pay What You Feel Preview." Friday and Saturday showtime is 8 p.m.; Sunday is 3 p.m. Tickets are $25 for adults, $18 for students and seniors. Each night there is 10 seats for $10 offer. Tickets can be purchased in advance at the box office or by calling 578-9122.
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Denise Simone buries herself in Hedda Gabler.
Photo by Kirsten Shultz
