SHOOTING HEDDA GABLER at the Rose Theatre Kingston

★★★★

“this is an extremely sharp interpretation. Funny and chilling, entertaining and thought provoking”

Henrik Ibsen’s nineteenth century drama, “Hedda Gabler” has often been hailed as a masterpiece and described as a female variation of ‘Hamlet’. And like Shakespeare, Ibsen’s works have also been subject to modern interpretations, twists and re-writes. It is an inevitable exercise with a work that is well over a century old; the success of which largely depends on how much of the original essence is retained whilst striking a chord with contemporary audiences. Nina Segal’s “Shooting Hedda Gabler” scores on both counts with an ingenious unfolding of the story on a twenty-first century film set in Norway.

After being offered the title role in a movie of ‘Hedda Gabler’, an American actress grabs the opportunity as an escape route from Hollywood and a scandal involving a violent run-in with the paparazzi. Although quite a success in America, she feels trapped by her celebrity status and perceived lack of artistic credibility. She is privileged but powerless. Arriving in Norway, however, she is merely powerless. The play opens with a quite remarkable scene during which she is introduced to her fellow cast members and director who not only have little time for her status but openly mock it. The tone is set with a mix of observation, satire and biting humour.

Hedda is in a world she wasn’t prepared for. Reality and fiction become blurred. Interestingly we never learn the names of the actors portrayed in this play – only their character names in the movie shoot – a device which further enhances the indistinction. Antonia Thomas, as Hedda Gabler, pitches the right amount of incredulity with a fierce resilience to keep her head above water and, indeed gives as good as she gets. She is immediately up against Henrik, the demanding and Machiavellian director, who demands that the aim is ‘not to seem to be, but to be’. He will go to any lengths to get the shot. Christian Rubeck is a commanding presence as Henrik who runs his studio like an amoral professor conducting a psycho-scientific experiment.

“The fragile humour gives way to tension as the atmosphere becomes increasingly claustrophobic”

It is a very clever and radical interpretation, but we never lose sight of the parallels with Ibsen’s original, aided by the exemplary performances. Joshua James, as the actor playing Hedda’s husband Jørgen, brilliantly mixes the humble resignation of Jørgen’s character with the aloof arrogance of the actor reluctantly playing a role which he feels is beneath him. Matilda Bailes, as Thea, throws in moments of comedy when it transpires she is also the studio’s therapist and intimacy director. Anna Andresen, as Berta the unappreciated AD, tries to hold it all together with an officiousness that often breaks under Henrik’s dictatorial hand. The fragile humour gives way to tension as the atmosphere becomes increasingly claustrophobic, the suspense further mounting when Henrik calculatedly recruits another movie star and real-life ex-lover of Hedda to play her on-screen ex-lover Ejlert (a charismatic Avi Nash who manages to make the character more tragic than perhaps Ibsen even intended).

If it sounds convoluted on the page, it does actually make sense on the stage and it is at times gripping. The undercurrents are captured, too, by Hansjörg Schmidt’s atmospheric lighting which clearly flickers between the reality, and the unreality when the cameras roll. A prior knowledge of Ibsen’s original is, if not absolutely necessary, a very useful requirement. But Segal has created something unique with this adaptation which could act as a stand-alone commentary on certain unfavourable aspects of today’s film industry. I’m not sure how much we are supposed to analyse the text but there are definite messages about the role of feminism in Hollywood and the more contentious topics of male domination, misogyny, manipulation and abuse. Ibsen predates the golden era of Hollywood in which starlets would customarily be under the control of tyrannical moguls. Segal’s version comes high on the wave that has thankfully brought that to account, and she balances these issues well without them pulling focus from what is a very acute piece of writing.

“Shooting Hedda Gabler” is occasionally surreal, the climax of Act Two perhaps a touch too bizarre, with the question of the current AI controversy and the effects of CGI on moviemaking unnecessarily thrown into the mix. It distances us too much from the heart of the story. But otherwise, this is an extremely sharp interpretation. Funny and chilling, entertaining and thought provoking.