HEDDA GABLER
written by HENRIK IBSEN • adapted by PATRICK MARBER
Director: Austin Jones • Scenic: Raven Bartlett • Lighting: Cora McKenna • Sound: Arianna Cardoza •. Photos: Maddie Lowe & Alexa Regan
Hedda Gabler explores the marriage between an Hedda and Tesman, and Hedda’s dissatisfaction with her life. She undermines and destroys those around her in attempt to hold onto a sense of control and gain power - “denying her pregnancy, destroying Thea's life-work, burning Lövborg's creative product, ruining the child-manuscript, and finally, committing suicide are all perverted attempts to satisfy her "craving for life." By depicting the pathology of a frustrated woman in Hedda Gabler, Ibsen declares his most powerful protest against the double standard society.”
In the set we wanted to encapsulate the presence of absence, and isolation in expansiveness - we wanted to capitalize on the visual schism of looking at spaciousness, yet experiencing how Hedda is trapped, highlighting how she traps herself. This large and architecturally void space in midst of renovation with careful placement of furniture that is slowly overtaken by outside items (flowers, books, manuscripts, clothing etc.) serves as both representation of Hedda’s house, and her psychological space.
