26 March to 5 April 2008

in the Studio Theatre

Hedda Gabler

by Henrik Ibsen

directed by Helen Caton

Returned pregnant from her honeymoon with adoring husband George Tesman, Hedda awakes into the cold reality of an existence throttled by the tight clench of refusal. Having chosen security over passion, Hedda's life becomes intolerably suffocating as the system into which she has married expects of her that which she is unwilling to deliver, namely her opening. Drowning in her own sense of a life devoid of purpose or meaning, Hedda begins to systematically destroy the hopes and dreams of those around her, with deathly consequences.

Viewed through a modern filter Ibsen's classic explores the deep imbalance which arises when a woman closes her heart to love and chooses a life bent by fear. This production of Hedda Gabler describes the haunting shape of a woman's closure.