Theatre

In 19th-century playwright Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, the main character Nora Helmer bravely leaves her family. Here, the Norwegian “father of modern drama” adds to his complex female protagonists with a story revolving around the gracious, clever and ambitious Hedda Gabler.
Previously in love with a talented but temperamental young writer, Hedda, the well-to-do daughter of a general, eventually marries a kind-hearted but dull academic. Bored by the end of their honeymoon, the newlywed is made more discontented when she discovers her former lover is in another relationship with her old schoolfriend and has managed to complete a masterpiece. Riven by jealousy and frustrated by lite’s turn of event, Hedda starts to lose her grip: she despises her unimaginative husband, hates to see the happiness of her friend, and is embittered by what her former lover has achieved. Gradually, her troubled mind drives herself and others towards disaster.
Premiered in 1981, Hedda Gabler was initially criticized as immoral. It has gone on to be regarded as one of Ibsen’s most challenging and compelling plays, and continues to be regularly staged in Europe and the US today. In this pioneering New Vision Arts Festival-produced performance, Adrian Noble, former Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the Royal Shakespeare Company, provides a thrilling new interpretation with leading artists from Hong Kong. Together, they traverse Hedda’s middle-class mindset, her improvidence and self-indulgence, resentment and cunning, and how a seemingly ideal life is transformed into tragedy.