Hedda Gabler

Hedda Gabler is playing at the Tap Gallery until 11 March

Seven characters, a pair of pistols and a late 19th century lounge room with two ornately decorated chairs. Throw in a few of the seven deadly sins - anger, envy, pride and of course, lust - and you have the story of the troubled Hedda Gabler, a story that takes place over a mere 36 hours.

Henrik Ibsen's 1890 play is revived and beautifully captured by Director Liz Arday and Sydney-based theatre company Factotum, featuring at the TAP Gallery in Darlinghurst from March 1st - March 11th 2012.

TAP Gallery is a marvellous setting for this play; as you walk up a narrow set of stairs you are greeted with a menagerie of books, art, mis-matched furniture, conflicting paint colours and random objects that one might find at a garage sale. This is a brilliant contrast to the minimalistic staging, props and wardrobe of the performance.

The quaint theatre fitting only 64 seats draws you into the production so deeply it feels as if you were spying on a neighbour or peeping through a keyhole, witnessing events which make you feel uncomfortable yet you can't tear your eyes away.
The actors create a very intimate energy which pulses through the audience.

Hedda Gabler, played by Rebecca Wood, is the perfect manipulative character that every bourgeois society needs and loathes. She is a puppeteer who skilfully sculpts her desires by subjecting those around her to torment and fear - albeit indirectly and ever so subtly, as a true master of puppetry would. The audience is not privy to her desires and at times it seems neither is Hedda; as her actions ultimately cause chaos to herself as well as to those who are pulled into her twisted web.
Did I mention this happens in only 36 hours?

Betrayal and lust are the most common themes of this play and propel the tale from just your ordinary highbrow shrew who orders people around, into the tale of a proud, ambitious lady who burns with passion for one man, is married to another and is blackmailed and propositioned by a third.
The standout actors are Rebecca Wood who plays Hedda Gabler and Richard Hillier who plays the blast from her past, Ejlert Lovborg.
They each engulf the complexity of their character, their chemistry leaving you almost breathless.
An intensely dramatic play well worth a look.

Reviewed by Lana Hilton