March 28, 2010
It’s not often that Oxford gets a touch of Bond-girl glamour in its theatre, but with Rosamund Pike, Robert Glenister and Tim McInnerny sharing a stage, you could tell that Hedda Gabler was going to be something special. Fortunately, this production didn’t disappoint. It was by turns charming, moving, and brutal. Ibsen’s play (ably translated by Michael Meyer) was transformed by cast and director into one of the most powerful pieces of drama I’ve ever seen. Domestic comedy turned to gripping tragedy so quickly that the audience was left with laughter dying on their lips.
I came to this play entirely cold, as it were, unfamiliar with Ibsen and with no knowledge of the plot. This production drew me in instantly and kept me on tenterhooks, awaiting every fresh twist in genuine suspense. Please forgive me, therefore, if I’m a little vague with details, but I don’t want to rob anyone of the same experience I had.
The staging was simple, almost stark: a few simple pieces of furniture gave the impression of multiple rooms without crowding the set. Subtle use of lighting transformed the stage into a mirror of the play’s mood. As the action progressed, the room darkened and every object gained a sinister new significance, until Hedda sat next to the open stove, flickering light giving her features a demonic appearance.
Really, simplicity was the hallmark of Hedda Gabler’s design. Staging and effects were unobtrusive, leaving the cast to do what they did best: produce brilliant performances and ramp up the tension. You can feel the walls of the house “smelling of lavender and old roses” beginning to close around you, just as Hedda does, not because of cheap dramatic tricks but because of sheer brilliant acting.
Tim McInnerny’s Judge Brack was odiously charming and charmingly odious by turns, with slightly camp charm undercut with sophisticated menace; I’ll never think of him as Captain Darling again! Robert Glenister portrayed Tesman as a wonderful mixture of an excited child, an anxious husband and a distracted academic. In less assured hands the role could become ludicrous, even farcical, but Glenister managed to draw on the audience’s humour and pathos in equal measure.
And then there was Rosamund Pike, a stand-out even in a cast of famous and talented actors. Her portrayal of the mercurial, dangerously bored Hedda was near-perfect, managing to express mounting desperation and offhand cruelty within seconds of each other. Zoe Waites’s anxiety-wracked Mrs. Elvsted provided the perfect foil to Pike’s unnerving mixture of the cold and the manic, while Anna Carteret's Aunt Juliana reinforced how sympathetic Hedda remained; who hasn’t had an elderly relative whose visits fill one with quiet dread? Colin Tierney's Loevborg was a brilliant counterpoint to Tesman and Elvsted alike, at once an academic rival and tragically flawed lover. You could almost see the bonds of jealousy and desire which stretched between the characters, by turns entangling and strangling them.
The whole cast, in fact, worked in concert, effortlessly controlling the mood of the theatre, playing off hopeful and horrified anticipation to keep the audience enthralled. If you doubt that classic theatre can be as taut and gripping as any thriller, this is the show for you. Go to see Hedda Gabler without preconceptions, and without expectations. It will defy the former and outstrip all of the latter. This production will blow you away.
I came to this play entirely cold, as it were, unfamiliar with Ibsen and with no knowledge of the plot. This production drew me in instantly and kept me on tenterhooks, awaiting every fresh twist in genuine suspense. Please forgive me, therefore, if I’m a little vague with details, but I don’t want to rob anyone of the same experience I had.
The staging was simple, almost stark: a few simple pieces of furniture gave the impression of multiple rooms without crowding the set. Subtle use of lighting transformed the stage into a mirror of the play’s mood. As the action progressed, the room darkened and every object gained a sinister new significance, until Hedda sat next to the open stove, flickering light giving her features a demonic appearance.
Really, simplicity was the hallmark of Hedda Gabler’s design. Staging and effects were unobtrusive, leaving the cast to do what they did best: produce brilliant performances and ramp up the tension. You can feel the walls of the house “smelling of lavender and old roses” beginning to close around you, just as Hedda does, not because of cheap dramatic tricks but because of sheer brilliant acting.
Tim McInnerny’s Judge Brack was odiously charming and charmingly odious by turns, with slightly camp charm undercut with sophisticated menace; I’ll never think of him as Captain Darling again! Robert Glenister portrayed Tesman as a wonderful mixture of an excited child, an anxious husband and a distracted academic. In less assured hands the role could become ludicrous, even farcical, but Glenister managed to draw on the audience’s humour and pathos in equal measure.
And then there was Rosamund Pike, a stand-out even in a cast of famous and talented actors. Her portrayal of the mercurial, dangerously bored Hedda was near-perfect, managing to express mounting desperation and offhand cruelty within seconds of each other. Zoe Waites’s anxiety-wracked Mrs. Elvsted provided the perfect foil to Pike’s unnerving mixture of the cold and the manic, while Anna Carteret's Aunt Juliana reinforced how sympathetic Hedda remained; who hasn’t had an elderly relative whose visits fill one with quiet dread? Colin Tierney's Loevborg was a brilliant counterpoint to Tesman and Elvsted alike, at once an academic rival and tragically flawed lover. You could almost see the bonds of jealousy and desire which stretched between the characters, by turns entangling and strangling them.
The whole cast, in fact, worked in concert, effortlessly controlling the mood of the theatre, playing off hopeful and horrified anticipation to keep the audience enthralled. If you doubt that classic theatre can be as taut and gripping as any thriller, this is the show for you. Go to see Hedda Gabler without preconceptions, and without expectations. It will defy the former and outstrip all of the latter. This production will blow you away.