HEDDA GABLER by Henrik Ibsen. Royal Exchange Theatre to 1 December.

Manchester

HEDDA GABLER
by Henrik Ibsen Translated by Michael Meyer

Royal Exchange Theatre To 1 December 2001
Runs 2hr 20min One interval

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Review Timothy Ramsden 10 November

Even in a theatre as strong on Ibsen as the Exchange, this outstanding production is a marvel.Unlike Nora Helmer in Ibsen's A Doll's House, Hedda Gabler lacks the strength to escape convention. So it's fitting Braham Murray's production provides a prison image as forceful as Nora's doll's house in the huge birdcage of Liz Ascroft's set, where Hedda struts and frets her 24 hours. On a proscenium stage it would seem over-designed; in the round it makes a fitting context.

Murray balances his forces well; Avril Elgar's elderly Aunt may have a limited outlook on life but she's a bright enough spark, neither doddery nor sentimental as so often played. And Eileen Essell is an understated servant, benignly soaking up her new mistress's demands. But the key casting is Simon Robson's Tesman. Tall, alert and with the look of a head-prefect going on matinee idol, he's far from the usual stooped-shoulder plodder. Here is someone it's credible Hedda might have married. It just happens that within the lithe form there's a pedant whose big fix is a newly unearthed detail about the industries of medieval Brabant.

On the other side of the balance, James Clyde's intellectually adventurous Loevborg, the man whose destiny Hedda lusts after shaping, is a muted, reformed character, making her anticipation of his sordid death as a vine-leaved triumph improbable from the outset.

At the centre is Amanda Donohoe's Hedda, a striking figure who spends the central acts in a flame-red, figure hugging dress, emphasising the sleek shape that adds a specific physical aspect to her disgust at Aunt Julia's hints of a little stranger on the way. She may burn Loevborg's manuscript, but she's careful that moving the stove-lid doesn't damage her nail-varnish. With her agitated poise, and the tetchy frustration in her moves and glances, she's an unmissable centre of attention; no wonder Terence Wilton's suavely assured judge Brack looks at her even when he's greeting her husband.

Kate Isitt's Thea, pale and polite, is the perfect foil, making clear how well Ibsen contrived the ending. As Thea and Tesman work hopefully at one end of the stage to reconstruct Loevborg's lost book, Hedda surrenders to the futility of her place in the world. Murray shows her lying on a couch to blast herself to the oblivion that is her only way out.

Julia Tesman: Avril Elgar
Bertha: Eileen Essell
George Tesman: Simon Robson
Hedda Tesman: Amanda Donohoe
Thea Elvsted: Kate Isitt
Jufge Brack: Terence Wilton
Eilert Loevborg: James Clyde

Director: Braham Murray
Designer: Liz Ascroft
Lighting: Jason Taylor

2001-11-14 00:35:15