Henrik Ibsen
Hedda Gabler
Drama of the Slovene National Theatre Maribor
Première 6. 2. 2015, Slovene National Theatre Maribor
Running time 1 hour 15 minutes. No interval.
Director Mateja Koležnik
Translator Bogomil Fatur
Text adaptation Mateja Koležnik, Metka Damjan
Dramaturg Goran Ferčec
Set designer Marko Japelj
Costume designer Alan Hranitelj
Choregrapher Matija Ferlin
Composer Mitja Vrhovnik Smrekar
Lighting designer Pascal Mérat
Language consultant Metka Damjan
Make-up designer Mirjana Djordjević
Cast
Hedda Tesman Nataša Matjašec Rošker
Jörgen Tesman Jurij Drevenšek
Miss Juliane Tesman Tesman Maša Žilavec
Mrs. Elvsted Mateja Pucko
Judge Brack Ivo Ban as guest
Ejlert Lövborg Matjaž Tribušon as guest
An innovative interpretation of one of the most insolent, controversial and influential 20th-century plays. The character of Hedda today is more alive than ever, containing an emphasised individual note along with a boundless awareness on the freedom of one’s own will. Ibsen’s play is an extraordinary example of heterogeneous dramatic motives and needs to be interpreted at least from two relational perspectives: one perspective being the social and the literary context of the time in which the play was written, the other perspective being the contemporary position. And in-between the entire 20th century (!) of changes and turbulences.
The play begins at the moment when Hedda returns from a six-month wedding-study trip to a "dream house” with her husband Jörgen Tesman. It is, however, in this new home that she feels entrapped more than ever in a corset of moral conventions, social restraints and her own lack of fulfilment. She cannot breathe, she cannot live in the cage of family life, she cannot stand the banal boredom of the everyday life and her own inner schism. A deep drama develops out of seemingly banal reasons as Hedda becomes aware that she herself will decide on the manner of combat.