Hedda Gabler - A New Version

Hedda Gabler returns, dissatisfied, from a long honeymoon

Bored by her aspiring-academic husband, she foresees a life of tedious convention, and so - aided and abetted by her predatory confidante, Judge Brack - she begins to manipulate the fates of those around her to devastating effect

“Brian Friel’s new version - taking liberties that only a master playwright might - invests Ibsen’s social realist original with psychological realism, presenting the harridan’s gradual mental breakdown as a physiological consequence of an entirely inflexible social milieu

Friel finds wry humour in historical hindsight; however, while the dated attitudes of Hedda’s husband, lovers and lady companions provoke laughter from a contemporary audience, Hedda’s final actions become an almost logical defense against a world that refuses her agency

Crucially, they still have the capacity to shock” ~ Irish Times

“Brian Friel has taken Ibsen’s play and given it his own twist. His translation enlivens the dialogue between the characters, gives the play energy and brings out a wry and dark humour for a modern audience” ~ RTE.ie