Hedda Gabler

Having brought cultural works of The UK and France to the Randstad with “Guards! Guards!” and “Cyrano de Bergerac”, English Theatre Utrecht (ETU) announces that Norwegian classic “Hedda Gabler” will be performed this May in Utrecht and June in Amsterdam.

In the cold recesses of 1950s Norway General Gabler’s daughter Hedda and her husband Tesman return from their honeymoon. Tesman sees a bright future yet fails to see the disdain Hedda has for her new life. Her mask of frivolity and mischief hides contempt for those who trapped her in her life of upper class boredom or worse: Thrive despite her pain.

One day fate brings an old classmate of Hedda’s home. Thea is everything Hedda finds wrong with others: Unable to see what makes life unfair yet still finding meaning. As a further insult, Thea is accompanied by Hedda’s old flame Løvborg. Together they thrive but underneath Løvborg has a spark that, if left unchecked, will lead to self-destruction. 

Over the course of a day Hedda tries to stoke competition in everyone around her, but in her attempts to test the limits she loses the control over others that she desperately cherishes until one act of defiance is all she has left.

Hedda Gabler is considered one of the most complex roles for female presenting actors, on the same level as Hamlet. The cast, which includes two Norwegians, are excited to show how Hendrik Ibsen’s thoughts about nature vs nurture has created a mercurial character at the knife’s edge of being redeemed or not.

See Eef de Korte and Alisa Shcherban embody the role previously played by Cate Blanchett, Tessa Thompson, and Dame Maggie Smith. By setting this retelling over the course of a day in the 1950s, ETU hope audiences can relate to Hedda’s frustration at a society whose objectifying view of women can reduce them down as easily as they can build them up, whilst exemplifying how she fails to see her own privileges.

Tickets are on sale now on ETU’s official website. Shows feature a double cast and discounts are available for students and anyone wanting to see both casts. Performed in English

It isn’t very pretty what a town without pity can do – Gene Pitney