In the weeks leading up to first rehearsal, we asked the cast and director of Hedda Gabler how the play—written in 1890 and with a continuous presence on stages ever since—was still resonating with them now, over a hundred years later. Here are the responses from half of the team, with the rest of the answers to follow in an upcoming post.
Kate Fry – Hedda Gabler
Twenty years ago, I would have insisted that Hedda be played by someone in their twenties. Now, that idea seems laughable. What excites me most about this production of Hedda Gabler is that much of the cast has known each other for ten, fifteen, even twenty years. We’ve watched each other grow, learn, fumble, and grapple with adulthood. Many of us are parents. All of us have had healthy doses of disappointment and loss. We aren’t children anymore, but we’re still close enough to that stage of our lives that we haven’t forgotten how idealistic—naïve, even—we once were. It is a bitter reckoning, reconciling how we thought life was supposed to go with how it actually does go. This is why Hedda Gabler is still relevant and will remain so. Examining this as a company is what I’m really looking forward to. We know each other, we trust each other, and we can be brave in confronting these scary and confounding moments.
Kimberly Senior – Director
We are all still faced with living up to our own mythology, oppressed and repressed by cultural and social norms, haunted by the potential and promise our youth advertised. And the play is sexy, smart, challenging, and even funny!
Sean Fortunato — Jørgen Tesman
We still recognize these characters as having the same problems people have today. They are passionate people who struggle with relationships, doubts, control, helplessness, balancing the different parts of their lives, obsession, boredom, love, lust, righteousness, insecurity, feeling like they make an impact on others, addiction, morality, and survival.
Kathleen Ruhl – Berte
Like my character, Berte, who is intimidated by the character Hedda, I have always been intimidated by Hedda the play. How does it work with a “mean girl” at its core? How can Hedda seduce the audience (and Berte, for that matter) as she does the men in the play? I’m excited to see from inside how this difficult classic gets from page to stage with this talented team.
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