Hedda Gabler

Synopsis

Norway, 1972

The aristocratic Hedda Gabler has just returned from her honeymoon, bored and dissatisfied with her new life as the wife of the scholar George Tesman. Restless, manipulative, and desperately seeking to exert control over her circumstances, Hedda rekindles her interest in her former admirer Eilert Loevborg when he returns to town after recovering from years of self-destruction and finding success with a new book. Consumed by jealousy of Loevborg’s talent and a desire for freedom from her conventional domestic role, the cunning Hedda begins to manipulate events to undermine his success.

Ibsen’s pioneering work of theatrical realism presents an unflinching portrait of bourgeois domestic life stifling individuality, especially for women. The complex, psychologically gripping, realistic drama provides a devastating critique of a society constraining women’s search for identity and self-realisation.