Hedda Gabler is often revived all around the world and has become popular for stock and amateur theatre companies. Because of the fantastic character of Hedda, the role has become the pinnacle in many actors’ careers. Below is a selection of prominent productions, alongside the actress who played the ill fated title role.
The original production was performed in Munich at the Konigliches Residenz-Theater on 31st January 1891 starring Clara Heese as Hedda. The production was then performed in London at the Vaudeville Theatre in April of the same year starring Elizabeth Robins.
The first production in America opened on March 30th 1898 at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York, where Elizabeth Robins reprised her performance as Hedda.
Since then, various actors have played the role including: Ingrid Bergman, Diana Rigg, Isabelle Huppert, Fiona Shaw, Maggie Smith, and Rosamund Pike
In 2005 Hollywood A-lister Cate Blanchett, won the Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Play for her performance in a new Australian production.
In the same year a production by Richard Eyre, starring Eve Best opened at the Almeida Theatre in London. The revival was well-received, and later transferred for a limited run at the Duke of York’s theatre in the West End.
Shortly after, in 2006, the play gained huge critical success in a production at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. The revival was directed by Matthew Lloyd and starred Gillian Kearney in the lead role.
More recently, a production of the play was stopped in Tehran, Iran in 2011. An Iranian news agency criticised the production, calling it “vulgar” and “hedonistic”
Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was born in 1828 into a poor family where he was forced to work at the age of 15. At the
age of 22 Ibsen moved to Christiania (modern day Oslo) with the intention of enrolling at University, but instead he began his successful writing career. He learnt theatrical trade working in various roles from stage hand to producer, although he became disenchanted with the theatrical world. In 1864 he began to travel with his wife and their son Sigurd, around Europe settling in cities such as Dresden, Rome and Munich. It was during this period that he wrote his finest works, beginning with A Doll’s House in 1879, Ghosts in 1881 and Hedda Gabler in 1890. His plays were successfully staged and gathered political momentum throughout Europe, with many praising his sometimes controversial themes. He suffered a stroke in 1900 and died in Norway in 1906.
- 1828 – 20 March, Born in Skien, Norway.
1843 – Begins work as an apothecary’s apprentice.
1846 – Has an illegitimate child with a servant girl.
1851 – Begins work as a theatre producer in Bergen.
1858 – Marries Suzannah Thoresen.
1859 – His legitimate son Sigurd is born.
1864 – Leaves Norway and begins to travel Europe.
1867 – Peer Gynt is published
1879 – A Doll’s House is published.
1881 – Ghosts is published.
1882 – An Enemy of the People is published.
1884 – The Wild Duck is published.
1890 – Hedda Gabler is published
1892 – Son marries Bergliot Bjornson
The Master Builder is published.
1900 – Suffers a stroke.
1906 – Dies, and is given a public funeral.