HEDDA GABLER - Henrik Ibsen

One of the things I liked about this play, even before I read it or saw it, was the title.

Even if you knew nothing about the content of Ibsen’s plays going into them, and that was true for me, you might conceivably be able to have a stab in the dark at what they might be about from the title. 

You probably wouldn’t be able to guess much, because they are complex works, but in retrospect the titles of “A Doll’s House,” “Ghosts” and “The Wild Duck” are quite symbolic of the themes and content within, and “An Enemy of the People” is even more straightforward.

But with Hedda Gabler (and the last name is apparently pronounced Garbler if a whole bunch of actors are to be relied upon) I had nothing. Nada… ikke noe (in Norwegian)… intet (Danish).

It’s a woman’s name? Maybe? So the play strong features a woman called Hedda Gabler, obviously. Bomp Bow! Close. Her name is actually Hedda Tesman… her MAIDEN name had been Hedda Gabler. But even that choice of title gives a meaningful heads up that this is a woman feeling trapped, diminished and controlled and not satisfied with the life she now leads.

I’m not sure if summarising some of Ibsen’s other pieces in my previous blogs has been useful (you can learn most of it from Wikipedia) but I’m not going to be as detailed this time. There’ll be spoilers still, but there’s so much good stuff to encounter in this play I want to leave a lot of it for you to discover.

I will start with this… I think Hedda Gabler is the stand out play of the five Ibsen plays I’ve read and watched. I liked all of them (well not so much “The Wild Duck”) but this one I feel is much more cohesive, largely the reveals and plot elements are better constructed and earned, and it’s an amazing piece of theatre particularly for the person (may not be someone who identifies as a woman) who finds themselves in the lead role.

As an aside, “Hedda Gabler” has a reputation in theatrical circles as being the female “Hamlet”. The plays of course are very different. At the very least, this is far shorter… not even half as long. And the roles are very different, the storyline very different, but each involves a very flawed lead character and this role is a standout (and a particularly brave role to write form women in theatre at its time) and so it’s unsurprising that many great and/or famous actresses have played the title role. A very abbreviated list of just some of those actresses includes:

Ingrid Bergmann, Peggy Ashcrodt, Janet Suzman, Diana Rigg, Glenda Jackson, Claire Bloom, Kate Mulgrew, Maggie Smith, Jane Fonda, Annette Bening, Judy Davis, Emmanuelle Seigner, Mary Louise Parker, Rosamund Pike, Ruth Wilson, Cate Blanchett and Tessa Thompson.

So what’s it about

Hedda Gabler is a woman stuck in a life, a house and a relationship she doesn’t want to be in. She dreams of greater wealth, luxury and position, but she is no mere tag-along Lady Macbeth. She refuses to be a victim and displays her agency at every opportunity.

She is, in turn, enigmatic, domineering, vulnerable, manipulative, spiteful and fragile. And in at least one production I watched there is quite a hint that she is battling with her mental health.

As the play starts, she is newly married and already over it. She longs for adventure, misses the prestige of being General Gabler’s daughter, and with having significant influence in life. Out of a mix of boredom, curiosity, vindictiveness and opportunity, she is more than happy to use her influence on those in her immediate proximity, mostly at their detriment.

She insults her husband George’s close Aunt out of petty vindictiveness, toys with and tortures (figuratively speaking) an old schoolmate just for sport, and flirts with two potential love interests to satisfy her ego, setting up antagonisms and conflicts as she goes.

Plot elements include her husband (George Tesman) and an old friend of his (Eilert Lovborg) who now compete for the same position, an unscrupulous family friend (Judge Brack) who has assisted the family in the past but no seeks to control Hedda. There’s an old schoolfriend of Hedda’s (Thea Elvsted), who doesn’t remember it being all that friendly and whose presence and love interests taunt Hedda, there’s a maid (Berte) that hedda has little time for and and the Aunt (Juliana Tesman) who played a large part in raising George and whom Hedda has even less time for.

Henrik Ibsen’s Greatest Hits

Hnbrik Ibsen was way ahead of the recycling and sustainability trend, reusing plot elements a number of times. I’m not having a shot at him (although guns come up a bit). In fact I am a huge fan of songwriter Jim Steinman who has been known to cut and paste entire songs and reuse them (check out Bad for Good and Nowhere Fast and get back to me). And for both writers that’s fine.. It’s their own original work after all and they can do what they like.

I really don’t want to spoil this play for newcomers, but I can say that some of Ibsen’s greatest hits are in the mix. Again, not all of these elements are in “Hedda Gabler” but some trademark Ibsen faves I’ve encountered in the five plays I’ve read or watched include:

• Most of the lead characters HAVE servants rather than ARE servants. Four plays. (Understandable that a middle-class raised Ibsen wrote about life experiences).

• Suicide of a key character very near the end of the book as an emphatic moral to the story. Two plays (and a third one, an assisted suicide).

• A child born out of wedlock whose true parentage (someone the audience has already met) is revealed near the end as a plot twist. Two plays.

• A woman leaving her husband and her children. Two plays.

Again, not saying what elements are used in “Hedda Gabler”, but I found that their use, and the user of other previously unused elements, was more effective, better scripted and better earned in this chronologically fifth of the five plays I’ve looked at.

The Play is the Thing

I liked the play from reading it, and that’s not always easy because some days your imagination and interest don’t want to come and play, but on this occasion the planet aligned. And I would have praised the play based just on that. But watching the ting come together can be a wholly more resounding experience.

As with “The Wild Duck,” I watched three different movies/videos of the play, although with that play I was hoping to see just one that I liked whereas with “Hedda Gabler” I was enjoying each so much I wanted more.

Because it’s been performed, and recorded, so often, I was spoiled for choice and so I went with options that featured actresses I really wanted to see.

The 1962 BBC Telemovie featured Ingrid Bergmann, just one of the greatest actresses of all time (personal bias… feel free to have your own opinions), along with Michael Redgrave, Trevor Howard and others. Very enjoyable… Ingrid has such almost royal presence and played the role quite aristocratically. She was still able to give indications of cruelty while seeming dignified and aloof, and Trevor Howard as the Judge was quite sinsiter when his moment arrives. Well worth a watch.

The 1981 ITV Telemovie featured Diana Rigg (who played opposite Goulburn’s own George Lazenby in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, the very sexy Emma Peel in the British Avengers (go write your own blog if you don’t like my descriptions) and also a quite majestic role in Game of Thrones… so I wasn’t going to skip this version. Diana Rigg played the role not dissimilarly to Ingrid Bergmann although seemed to always have a bit of something concerning bubbling just below the surface. She played it more sneakily and more manipulatively than Bergmann, but otherwise the set and directorial decisions were very similar and it was also great to watch.

Quite literally, the best version I saw was left to last. It was a pro-shot video on National Theatre at Home performed and recorded in 2017. I felt in this version I saw the play in all of its potential and became passionate about seeing it performed locally. The stage was extremely bare… and while I’ve started to become a fan of simple staging it leaned into the “come on mate, have a bit of a go” territory. But it did work effectively in giving the cast plenty of freedom of movement and self expression.

And what a cast. Really. I didn’t recognise many of the actors (other than Ruth Wilson as Hewdda and Rafe Spall as Judge Brack), but they all seemed to find a way to stamp their characters more personally and more substantially than in the other two versions I saw. 

But it was a tour de Force for Ruth Wilson. She was hanging on to her sanity by a thread at times (her character that is). Her outbursts were bigger and louder. She was at times more charming than the others I saw (sorry Ingy and Di) and while all of them did great work with the domineering, manipulative and nasty elements, Ruth brought a whole other layer in the vulnerability stakes. 

AND huge praise for Rafe Spall who showed the most ominous and even terrifying of the Judges I saw. Man did he own that role. You could absolutely feel how trapped and fearful Hedda was and despite her being very much an architect of her own situation STILL find sympathy for her. His scene with the can of Big Tom tomato juice is very unsettling in a kind of “Reservoir Dogs” kind of way. And speaking of that film, this production also made great use of incorporate music, including “Blue” by Jonie Mitchell, “Hallelujah” (the Jeff Buckley version) and “Wild is the Wind” sung by Nina Simone

There were many staging differences (and the work is described as being Patrick Marber’s adaptation) but I don’t think there were any major plot/script changes. Just finessing. In short, this emotional, engaging, aggravating yet satisfying rendition was absolutely brilliant. 

There were other versions I wanted to see, including the 1972 version with Janet Suzman and a young up and coming actor called Ian McKellan, and the latest riff, “Hedda” starring Tessa Thompson while I expect I’ll watch soon, but if I didn’t draw the line this blog would become 100 versions of the same play in 365 days.

Final thoughts

Firstly, YES it would work in Goulburn. Could I please direct it? Actually maybe it would benefit from a female director’s perspective. Either way, I’m very keen to see it and already fan casting the thing.

This is a very strong play with plenty of bits of meat in it that keeps it relevant all these 140 odd years later. Obviously how trailblazing it must have been to have an anti-heroine in such a strong and commanding role in the way back machine, but it’s still attracting actors, still attracting audiences.

If I haven’t been clear enough, I was very impressed. 

And so ends my five-play quick visit to the works of Henrik Ibsen. I totally get the significance of his influence on realism in theatre. In several plays I found on very rare occasions a rushed timing of events leading to the denouement, or in a few occasions a slightly implausible motive a little frustrating, but these are all very clever, multi-faceted, multi-themed works. 

Ibsen was, against considerable negative publicity and public reception, forging his own path and setting theatre in a new direction. People aren’t simply redoing so many of his plays all of these years later out of kindness… they are loved, respected and they work. I’ve very much enjoyed getting to know more about Ibsen and a handful of his works… now on the Mr Chekhov (and no, not on the deck of the USS Enterprise).

Materials accessed:

• “Hedda Gabler” – script. Available at various places including The Internet Archive.

• “Hedda Gabler” – Telemovie (1962). BBC Telemovie available on Youtube.

• “Hedda Gabler”  - Telemovie (1980). ITV telemovie on Youtube.

• “National Theatre Live: Hedda Gabler” – Pro-shot video (2017). National Live Theatre production. Available on National Theatre at Home by subscription.