theatre: Hedda Gabler manipulates
Tejpal Swatch, Associate Staff Writer

Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler is as perturbing a viewing experience as anything written for the stage. The psychological complexities of his characters, the things left unsaid, the action that inevitably and tragically unfolds leaves an audience with a sense of unease that lingers. It is the stuff of memorable theatre.

That said, SFU's school for the contemporary arts adaptation of Hedda Gabler is an entertaining, if flawed, production of Ibsen's play. While the cast delivers strong performances, problems with sound and audience seating arrangements take away from the play as a whole.

The play begins in the morning after newlyweds Hedda Gabler, daughter of the great General Gabler, and George Tessman (played splendidly by Aidan Maxted) return from a long trip abroad. Tessman's Aunt Julie (Toni Ferrone) is visiting to welcome the couple home. From George's action and dialogue, we can see that the honeymoon has certainly ended.

Tessman must now provide Hedda (Stephanie Hayes) a life that she is accustomed to and demands. Hedda, for her part, realises she may have made a mistake by marrying a weakling like George, but is too bored to care. Does she love him? When Tessman holds out a pair of his old slippers, something of immense sentimental value, for her to see, Hedda acknowledges and dismisses them with muted horror.

She is unsatisfied. Even her honeymoon with Tessman was too uneventful for her tastes. She confides to Judge Brack (a perpetually smirking Frank Nickel) about the tediousness of her life and how she wishes to be alive and free. So when Thea Elvstead (Big Love's Heather Doerksen) comes to the Tessmans for help, Hedda finds a project to occupy her, to nurse her need for control and manipulation. The result is, well, an Ibsentian establishment of folly that resolves itself at the end of the play.

The performances from the entire cast are strong, but two stand out. Aidan Maxted, as George Tessman, is a bundle of nervous, kinetic desperation. He confronts all turns in life, including upsetting ones, as an academic, calculating and considering - his jealous reaction to rival Eilert Lövborg's (Nick Hunning) success is a case in point. The result is a wonderful juxtaposition of emotion and restraint. Watch how he furiously paces the room in perfectly-spaced steps. See how he makes gestures in accordance to decorum, but a little too fast, a little too violently. Maxted is a joy to watch.

Stephanie Hayes' portrayal is superb. Instead of performing as a pursed-lipped Machiavellian, she chooses to play an elegantly miffed Hedda, one who contemptuously, but resignedly surveys the people and setting of her life. She manipulates Tessman, Lövborg and Thea with bemusement, not tyrannical control. Hayes' Hedda is less a dangerous beauty than an intellectually bored one. In a way, Hayes endears herself to the audience, because she is a woman who wants and needs so much more.

Unfortunately, Hedda Gabler suffers from some problems, particularly with sound. The audience surrounds the stage from two sides. Even sitting in the first row, it was sometimes difficult for me to hear what the actors were saying, particularly when they were on the other side of the stage or involved in a close, face-to-face conversation. I can only imagine what it must have been like for people a few rows up. I appreciate the effect of the seating arrangement, as the audience becomes flies on the wall in the Tessman home, but incoherence may have been the result.

Viewing the play from my vantage point was also difficult, as I was on a seat that was against a wall, but 90 degrees to the action. While I was rewarded when the players moved the action in front of me, I got a sore neck when it was not.

These complaints aside, Hedda Gabler is a worthwhile theatre experience, if for nothing else than to see Ibsen's work performed. The actors managed to bring out a complex, interesting profile of the characters. As you file out of the unorthodox stage, you will leave not only with a feeling of unease, but also memorable theatre.

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