Hedda Gabler
By Henrik Ibsen, translated by Paul Walsh
Jan 19-Feb 26, 2017
Reviewed by Christine OkonHenrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler presents one of the most challenging, complex roles for an actress to play.
Bored to
death by married life with the tediously academic George Tesman, she yearns to smash the clockworks of societal expectations but, not knowing what she really wants,
continues to pace back and forth in frustration, anger, and fear.
Directed by
Yury Urnov (Ubu Roi), with condensed translation by Paul Walsh, this Hedda taps into an emotional chaos that boils beneath the veneer of polite 1890’s
society.
Aunt Juliane
(a prim and prodding Heidi Carlsen) sports the pretty hat (a whimsical spot of
color thanks to costume designer Alina Bokovikova) that Hedda knowingly and
unkindly dismisses as the maid’s old hat. Indeed, it is the maid Berte (a
beleaguered and stressed out Michelle Drexler), who gives us an inkling that
all is not as usual in the household, especially with a callous new mistress
who is impossible to please.
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| Kunal Prasad (Ejlert Lovborg) and Carla Pauli (Thea Elstead) Photo by Liz Olson. |
Or so he
thought. Upon seeing Ejlert again, Hedda knows his demons and coaxes him to
celebrate with a drink. He protests but gives in to Hedda, taking a drink, and
another, and another with Thea pleading all the way. Kunal Prasad (the remarkable
Poet in A Dreamplay) is a larger than life Ejlert Lovborg, dragging a huge
pitchfork across the floor like a ball and chain, making a painful grating
sound. This Ejlert is more of a caricature, a device for Hedda to manipulate
and discard as she has done before.
Britney Frazier brings us a Hedda who, like a panther or a snake, moves deliberately in its own realm, no matter how small that realm is. She is General Gabler’s daughter who wields a mean pistol even if she is only “shooting into the sky.” She banters with the ubiquitous Commissioner Brack (Steve Thomas), whose stature and Elmer-Fuddish demeanor belies the entitled and conniving creep that he is. Hedda muses on the misery of marriage, of taking a train ride with the same person your whole life. What if someone along the way comes into your car, muses Brack, insinuating that he complete the triangle with her and George. Hedda and Brack sit in chairs at both ends of the stage, volleying suggestions, comebacks, and vague propositions back and forth like a tennis match. Sensing that Brock is an adequate but ignorant player, stupid in fact, Hedda is all the more humiliated when she is eventually trapped in his corner.
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| Britney Frazier rules as Hedda Gabler. Photo by Liz Olson |
Hedda's willful world is crumbling. Ejlert, wracked with remorse for carelessly losing his life's work, does not end his life as beautifully as Hedda wished. She is not part of the bond George and Thea form to recreate Ejlert's book. Brack is poised like
the rooster in the hen house to her private realm. Trapped, she seizes her instrument of art-- her
father’s pistol--to do the one creative act that is hers alone.
Here Urnov
makes a very creative decision: A single gunshot is not enough for Hedda. She
blows it all apart, powerfully staged as an explosion. We see Hedda as who she
really was all along – the strutting, sleek and stunning panther in her
glorious bareness, flicking ashes on the life she escaped, and promising to keep
on disrupting order.
For a tiny stage with no walls, the set designed by Jacquelyn Scott conforms to the pace of the play. Planes of scrims divide the space and create depth. The mobile set is rearranged by sprightly stage hands wearing bowlers, skipping to contemporary and somewhat apropos songs like “Tiptoe through the Tulips” or “La Vie en Rose” from the whimsical sound design of Cliff Caruthers. Hamilton Guillen’s strategic lighting follows the emotional flow of scenes; his use of silhouettes adds even more dimension to the limited space. For the “burning the child” scene, light to suggest fire offstage would have heightened the effect of Hedda’s destructiveness.
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| Britney Frazier (Hedda) and Commisioner Brack (Steve Thomas). Set design by Jacquelyn Scott. Photo by Liz Olson. |
Cutting
Ball’s production of Hedda Gabler may not appeal to Ibsen purists, as much was
done to alter the script to make it more “contemporary.” But there’s a
wonderful energy to follow through the play that may spark some new insights.
Imagine that!
Hedda Gabler
By Henrik Ibsen, translated by Paul Walsh
Cutting Ball Theater www.cuttingball.com
Jan 19-Feb 26, 2017
Director: Yury Urnov
Set Design: Jacquelyn Scott
Lighting Design: Hamilton Guillen
Sound Design: Cliff Caruthers
Costumes: Alina Bokovilikova
Cast: Franciso Arcila (George Tesman); Heidi Carlsen (Julianne Tesman); Michelle Drexler (Berte); Britney Frazier (Hedda Gabler); Carla Pauli (Thea Elstead), Kanal Prasad (Ejlert Lovborg (Kanal Prasad); Steve Thomas (Commissioner Brack)
