Review: Hedda Gabler

The first thing that struck me on walking into the Barn was the tiered seating, rather hard in the shins. To maintain the mystery of the set the entire Barn was cast into absolute pitch blackness leaving the audience to grope their way to their seats, risking life and limb. It was an exciting moment when the lights came up to reveal the well appointed drawing room of the Teslers, but not really worth the gloom. This was Week 9’s production of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, a play sometimes hailed as “the female Hamlet”, charting the rapid deterioration of Hedda’s life after marriage due to boredom and a destructive tendency to play with pistols.

It opened strongly thanks to Laura Griffin as Aunt Juju, who acted in a suitably fussy fashion but was likeable enough for the audience to sympathise with her, this was shown when Hedda insults her arcipluvian new hat. Becky Goodwin played Berta (curiously Cockney in nineteenth century Oslo) and Richard Spears acted George Tesman. They set the scene at the Tesman’s return from their sixth-month honeymoon, and Aunt Juju already hoping for great nephews and nieces. The conversation between Aunt Juju and George where she tried to hint at family “expectations” was particularly funny.

The women’s costumes deserve special mention, they all fitted beautifully and were perfect for the period. Sadly the men’s costumes were a little less consistent with a distressing lack of ties, which upset my inner prefect and historian.

Rose Basista was a suitably bitchy Hedda, and Rowena Jacobs as Thea was an excellently breathy and melodramatic foil to Hedda’s calm manipulation. Hedda’s quiet asides were masterpieces of understatement, but at times a little too quiet to be audible, even in the small space of the Barn.

Joe D’Angelo made a suitably creepy Judge Brack and Sam Thorpe-Spinks was very good as the troubled genius Eilert, only perhaps a little too wholesome, but he proved himself capable of angsting with the best in the third part.

The problem is this strong cast were let down by smaller details which distracted from a whole which wasn’t strong enough to defend itself against these petty distractions. Chief of these was the lighting. Characters stood on a dark stage and said how bright it was, only to later stand on a fully lit stage and complain of darkness. At other times the room was plunged into vespertinal gloom and the maid brought a candle in, while daylight shone in through the window. This continued to be a problem when the lighting was used to try and create two areas of staging when really only one was needed. In such a small space it is better to stick to minimalistic lighting, else it ends up distracting awfully from the action. Another curious effect was that of the jigsaw puzzle portrait at the back of the stage which slowly took shape to form General Gabler’s portrait.

Sadly it was far too big for the space and while it did make a point, it was a point that should have been made in the action through careful direction, and should not have needed a large visual prompt. Instead it was distracting and “arty for arts sake” as a member of the audience put it, which I feel was rather the problem with the lighting too.

Essentially this play tried to be too much. It should have stuck to being a strong historical drama, rather than a historical drama with experimental elements. More attention should have been paid to the small details so that they didn’t distract from the cast. I’m sure many of the small faults were due to it being the first night, and if any of the production team read this before tonight, please find some ties for the men and some matching wine glasses. Hopefully as the cast become more self assured throughout the run it will pick up pace, but last night it seemed like a very good school play, but not a very successful university one.