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1972

Hedda Gabler

Written by Henrik Ibsen

Play Details

Context

Artistic Director
Oscar Lewenstein

Adapted By 
John Osborne

Original Language 
Norwegian

Dates Performed

Wednesday 28th June 1972
Jerwood Theatre Downstairs

Play Details

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.

Director(s)

Anthony Page

Cast & Creative

Cast

Jill Bennett

Cast

Brian Cox

Cast

Anne Dyson

Cast

Denholm Elliot

Cast

Barbara Ferris

Cast

Ronald Hines

Cast

Mary Merral

Adapted by

John Osborne

Designer

Alan Tagg

Costume

Deirdre Clancy