Content Warning: This article contains content regarding suicide.
As someone who loves period pieces, no matter the genre, I can confidently say that I was quite enamored with Albion College’s performance of “Hedda Gabler.” From the wonderfully made costumes to the slowly unraveling personas, I was thoroughly spun into these characters’ intricate webs and individual stories.
According to the playbill, “Hedda Gabler” was originally written by Henrik Ibsen and updated by Patrick Marber. It follows the story of young Hedda, played by New York sophomore Jane Raven, who’s recently married and fairly unhappy. We see proof of this through conversations with her new husband Tesman, played by Jackson sophomore Connor Ganzel, as well as his aunt Juliana, played by Hamilton junior Jessica Harvey.
Nearly all conversations with Hedda result in sarcastic comebacks and further development as we dive into her character, concerning her past decisions and the people she’s come into contact with. Which, as an audience member, I was itching to learn more about.
‘Oh, Hedda.’ She’s Complicated!
While the play’s set and costumes were incredibly beautiful and helped throw me properly into the 19th century, when the story is claimed to be set, it’s important to note the darker themes prevalent in the show.
A major point for Hedda’s character is that she’s a woman who feels trapped not only in her marriage but in the life that she’s expected to live. I don’t view this as an excuse for her manipulative behavior towards others, but it’s important context for her character.
It was the societal norm at the time for women to have very little power, and any power that she did have often came from her relationship with a man, whether that be her father or husband. It’s a sad truth that I think could be applied to our current times as well. While things have gotten better for women, we still live in a harsh reality where men regularly have much more power.
Nonetheless, it’s hardly a surprise that Hedda didn’t marry Tesman out of love, a truth that’s revealed via a conversation between Hedda and Brack, played by Marysville sophomore Brady Zalac. When things in her marriage prove to be less than ideal, Hedda’s distaste becomes more and more tangible.
It’s hard for me to establish a concrete connection between myself and Hedda’s character. On one hand, you can’t exactly ignore her actions, which lean more towards self-driven and intentionally harmful to her associates. She throws aunt Juliana’s gifted flowers into the fireplace, pressures her peers into revealing their deepest secrets – causing Thea, played by Dallas junior Alaceia Simmons, to reveal that she ran away from her husband – opens up old wounds and affairs with past lovers…the list goes on.
Oh, Hedda.
However, I’m also sympathetic to her character and her situation, a situation that I’m sure real women experienced at the time. How does one cope with the feeling of both being trapped and poorly fit in this new life? One does not typically do this by trying to purposefully sabotage their alleged friends and their careers.
With regard to Hedda’s character, Raven said she thought about her complexity while performing.
“Even though I think everyone’s first impression of Hedda is that, ‘Oh she’s a jerk,’ I think it’s important to remember that I’m playing the role from a point of truth, so I’m playing her truthfully, and everything she feels and senses,” Raven said. “It’s important to remember her side of it, and everything that she’s been through.”
Symbolic Suicides
Death is an overarching theme in the play, something unexpected but not unwelcome.
At the very beginning of the play, we’re informed of Tesman’s dying aunt Rina, who’s never shown on-stage but is being cared for by his aunt Juliana. In this sense, death is depicted as an innocent thing in a very “circle-of-life” way.
However, once death sinks its teeth into both Lövborg, played by Dallas junior Alexander Christian, and Hedda in the form of suicide, it becomes something more alarming and taboo.
Suicide has been done in plays time and time again, with dozens of motives and meanings behind them. A common example is Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” where Romeo finds himself at a loss at his lover’s supposed death, resulting in his suicide. This is then followed by Juliet’s awakening from her poison-induced slumber, finding that Romeo committed suicide and submitting herself to the same fate.
It is a love story that ends in tragedy and has been picked up repeatedly in the media.
This is quite the contrast from “Hedda Gabler,” in which love is almost nowhere to be found.
I had gone into the theater completely blind, so one could imagine my shock when not one, but two characters committed suicide. We do eventually find out that Lövborg’s death was accidental, a sentiment that crushes Hedda as she initially thought his self-inflicted death to be something beautiful and “freeing.”
Hedda’s choice to kill herself was ultimately the result of feeling trapped within her life with no other choice. All her work of manipulation and scheming amongst her peers was futile, leaving death as her only escape.
I found it thought-provoking that Hedda was also pregnant at the time of her death. Perhaps this was another driving cause in her decision and her feelings of entrapment.
Because of this, I can’t help but feel an intense sense of sympathy for Hedda. Not that her actions are to be excused, because some were downright cruel, like her burning of Lövborg and Thea’s manuscript. But, to me, it makes her actions feel a lot more real and somber.
Final Thoughts
Hedda Gabler has left me with a lot of questions about both myself and the women who lived in the 19th century.
Hedda’s presence on stage was humorous at times, with both her sarcasm and quick comebacks, but also incredibly compelling and convoluted at others. Her character was so incredibly vivid and hard to understand. I wanted to learn more about who she was, especially in her past life, but as an audience member, I was left only to imagine.
While I mourn for the chaos and distasteful choices Hedda made, which I’m sure didn’t stop affecting others even after her death, I also mourn for her and all the women who lived during this time, whose fates might have aligned with her own.
Which makes me feel very weird, I might add. Though, I shouldn’t be surprised; morally gray characters tend to stick with me.
I believe that her character is almost completely up for interpretation, only adding to my uncertainty about whether I like or loathe her. She’s a character that I’m sure I’ll be thinking about for a lot longer than I expected.Raven’s portrayal of Hedda, as well as all of the other cast members’ performances, were phenomenal. Once again, Albion’s Theatre Department has earned a solid round of applause from me, and I cannot wait to see what they put on next.
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