Come listen to UMaine English Professor Richard Brucher discuss the brilliance of Henrik Ibsen’s masterpiece Hedda Gabler. Brucher will examine the various problems of interpretation posed by the play, particularly regarding Hedda’s acerbic, malicious, and principled resistance to stifling social, moral, and economic conventions. Although attracted to a bohemian life, she has married down to an ambitious but obtuse professor. (“Can you imagine!”). Hedda, who scandalizes her husband Tesman and nemesis Judge Brack with her own self-determining act, is a role that has attracted great actors for 125 years. This contemporary version uses a new adaptation by British playwright Patrick Marber, with staging by Ivo van Hove, one of the most provocative directors working today.
A bit about the show according to the Collins Center for the Arts website:
“ “I’ve no talent for life.”
Just married. Bored already. Hedda longs to be free …
Hedda and Tesman have just returned from their honeymoon and the relationship is already in trouble. Trapped but determined, Hedda tries to control those around her, only to see her own world unravel.
Tony Award-winning director Ivo van Hove (A View from the Bridge at the Young Vic Theatre) returns to National Theatre Live screens with a modern production of Ibsen’s masterpiece.”