Hedda Gabler
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"This revised text . . . flows quite naturally. . . . [Baitz has] boldly chipped away at the romantic patina and found a fragile, contradictory and frightened soul." --Ben Brantley, The New York Times
In 1890, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen completed Hedda Gabler, a play that questioned the role of women in Victorian society through its portrayal of its title character, a young woman trapped in a disappointing marriage. Having been the center of a glittering social world in her father's home, Gabler chafes at her more humble role as the wife of a scholar. Some audiences have viewed Gabler as driven to desperation simply because her world has turned out to be less charmed than she hoped. For others, she is a victim of her times, unwilling to devote herself, as was expected of her, to the duties of home.
Jon Robin Baitz's new adaptation provides readers with a Hedda Gabler for the twenty-first century. The lens through which Baitz views Gabler has been shaped by contemporary feminism and the theatrical tradition beginning with Beckett, yet he preserves what is most fascinating about this play centered on a character who is at once difficult, petty, desperate, and ambitious, but still elicits the sympathy of audiences. Baitz's adaptation makes it clear why readers continue to be drawn to Hedda Gabler more than a century after it was written: Gabler is a timeless figure, searching for a happiness that will always elude her.
Henrik Ibsen
Born in 1828, Henrik Ibsen was a Norwegian playwright and poet, often associated with the early Modernist movement in theatre. Determined to become a playwright from a young age, Ibsen began writing while working as an apprentice pharmacist to help support his family. Though his early plays were largely unsuccessful, Ibsen was able to take employment at a theatre where he worked as a writer, director, and producer. Ibsen’s first success came with Brand and Peter Gynt, and with later plays like A Doll’s House, Ghosts, and The Master Builder he became one of the most performed playwrights in the world, second only to William Shakespeare. Ibsen died in his home in Norway in 1906 at the age of 78.
More by Henrik Ibsen
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