Hedda Gabler
Hedda (Martha Plimpton) is a beautiful, grasping woman who marries a dull scholar, Tesman (Matthew Sussman), with whom she has nothing in common except the desire for social ascension. She loathes his family, and her only friend in his group is Judge Brack (the splendidly smarmy Tom Irwin); both like to manipulate people just because they can. Into this snake pit comes Thea, a runaway from an unsympathetic husband, who has the bad luck to be running to one of Hedda’s unextinguished old flames, Eilert Lovborg. Hedda concocts a scheme to ruin Thea (Amy J. Carle) and bring Lovborg (Tim Hopper) back into her own orbit. She could be motivated by jealousy of Thea’s conquest, or she might envy Thea’s courage in escaping the bonds of marriage. But Hughes has bigger fish to fry: this Hedda wants to destroy because she has nothing else to do. “As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport,” in the words of Lear.
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Pointless sacrifice is also the subject of Steppenwolf’s Studio Theatre production–Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, written only a few years later. In fact both pieces examine the same situation: fatuous pseudoscholar brings disruptive bride into his social circle. But where Ibsen investigates the dynamic from the viewpoint of the newcomer, Chekhov addresses it from the perspective of the circle she disrupts. Imagine a Hedda Gabler that brings Aunt Julie to the fore and you have Uncle Vanya. Both playwrights raise questions about the role of self-sacrifice among people imprisoned by listlessness and futility.
The following plays are reviewed this week in Section Two: Blue Surge, Captain Virtue and the Champions of Justice, Clouds, The Dana & Julia Show, Flanagan’s Wake and The Baritones, Justice Is Served, The Misanthrope, Scooby-Doo Mystery Theatre II, The Taming of the Shrew, Tough!, and Waiting for the Sunrise.
