Theatre Review by Christina Manolescu</MARQUEE>
Whatever you may, or may not have remembered from high school, Judith Thompson’s adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s play is a brave departure from earlier translations. Her language is deliberately ‘edgier’ and more contemporary; at the same time, it is more poetic, imaginative and lyrical. Strictly ‘out of love for Ibsen,’ the acclaimed Canadian playwright did away with the stilted euphemisms of the age, trying to ‘recapture the impact of Ibsen’s early productions, clear away the obscurities, and restore the rhythm and poetry of natural speech.' The result is a rich and elegant dialogue, naturalistic and engaging, daring and controversial.
Mainline’s stage, almost a theatre in the round, allows for an intimate peek on the Gabler-Tesman family intimacy. It’s a serene, inviting décor (kudos to the props and stage designer) in which the blacked-out audience becomes the tolerated ‘voyeur.’ The symbolic focus: a military portrait of Gabler’s late father above the lit ‘fireplace’, along with a couple of his gleaming souvenir pistols. And, yes—this sets the stage, literally, for what is to come.
During an epoch when women, presumably, had few rights and limited influence in the outside world, Patricia Summersett offers a mature, masterly portrayal of Hedda Gabler as a graceful, wilful and intimidating force of nature, although always within the confinement of her own home. She’s also the magnet for a revolving constellation of bygone lovers, hopeful paramours, husbands, in-laws, domestics, wary antagonists and uncertain friends.
Whether it’s the saintly mannered Juliana Tesman (Jane Gilchrist) or the insolent housemaid Berta, (Carolyn-Fe Trinidad) or else her unlikely rival, the destitute Mrs. Elvsted (Catherine Bérubé)—in Gabler’s brooding unquiet presence, they’re all trespassing on dangerous ground.
Patrick Goddard gives a solid, endearing performance as George Tesman, her perplexed, brow-beaten and besotted husband. Family ‘friend,’ Neil Napier, plays the frankly insinuating, all-too-corruptible Judge Brack. Dan Jeannotte, as Eilert Lovborg, comes across as wonderfully seductive rather than fiendish. It’s hard to imagine him (safely offstage), turning violent and dangerously partial to brothels and drink.
At any rate, this supposed defect in Eilert’s nature doesn’t appear to trouble Gabler, a ‘drama queen’ in the truest sense of the word. Having just returned from a long dreary honeymoon with Tesman, she finds no happiness, serenity or fulfillment anywhere. There is a self-imposed disconnect between herself and the great hazardous world outside. Yet her mind—always in overdrive—is forever leaping ahead of the crowd. Gabler obsesses on the tenuous boredom of the present moment versus her tumultuous secret past.
Like Lovborg, her equally dark twin-soul and would-be lover, she’s a self-destructing paradox. A hybrid persona. Any sense of restraint or remorse is fleeting; her prime impulse is to inflict damage, to smash through her real and invisible chains. Morbidly modern, the iconic figure of Hedda Gabler flits with ease from century to century; a female Hamlet, as she has been called, she bears dramatic witness to the fragile force and volatility of the human psyche under siege.
Theatre Review by Christina Manolescu © 2008
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Hedda Gabler
By Henrik Ibsen, Adapted by Judith ThompsonDirected by Jeremy Hechtman
Starring Patricia Summersett, Neil Napier, Patrick Goddard,
Dan Jeannotte, Catherine Bérubé, Jane Gilchrist and Carolyn-Fe Trinidad
Photographer, Andrea Hausmann
January 29-February 16
Wed-Sat 8pm, Sun 3pm
MainLine Theatre, 3997 St-Laurent
Tickets: $17 or $12 with FourPlay Card
514.849.1340www.mainlinetheatre.ca
A MainLine Theatre Production