Ibsen was Norwegian, but his most famous plays received their premieres in Germany, in the German language. As Germany was the first country to recognise his genius as a dramatist, the Germans arguably have the right to regard him as part of their own cultural heritage. Thomas Ostermeier’s 2006 production of Ibsen’s greatest realistic drama shows just how proprietorial they can be!
Ostemeier’s setting is bracingly contemporary - an open plan livingroom-cum-study area with a balcony, clearly located in a modern European city. Although designer Jan Pappelbaum has created a recognisably modern space, full of air and comfortable designer furniture, it is an arid environment, freighted with ‘dead’ areas and seeming too big for its purpose. The only signs of natural life are the row of sunflowers provided by the interfering Tante Julie. It is an appropriate location for the mismatched newly-wedded couple, Jorgen and Hedda Tesman, whose antipathy to each other is signposted from Hedda’s first entrance.
Katharine Schuttler’s Hedda is an original interpretation of this most famous role. More siren than suburban Lady Macbeth, she bears an at times striking resemblance to Bjorn Andresen’s Tadzio, the sailor-suited tempter of Visconti’s film of 'Death In Venice', possibly an intentional effect, for there is something passive about this Hedda. Whether lounging on the Scandinavian style sofa or slouching against the apartment walls, she is the still centre of the drama, while others flutter around her, principally Lars Eidinger as her clueless husband and Annedore Bauer as old school friend Thea Elvsted. It may be implied that her very passivity is what draws people to her, as in Brack’s (Lore Stefanek) attempted rape of her in Act 3 (one of Ostermeier’s directorial inventions).
This production dates from the early years of the century, when it was still (just about) possible to ‘lose’ a computer file, so the issue on which all over modern updating of the play have come unstuck is excusable here. Hedda takes a hammer to the computer on which the only copy of Loevborg’s masterwork exists and craters it like a burnt candle. Although the production generally respects the source text, it was an intelligent call to neutralise the overly melodramatic ending (as Robert Ferguson once commented, the problem with Hedda Gabler is that everyone, apart from the actors on stage, know what’s gong to happen at the end!). Hedda’s fatal shot is heard offstage, but Brack, Tesman and Thea continue chatting, assuming it’s yet another of Hedda’s destructive games.
A new coat of paint for an Old Master then, and worth two hours’ of anyone’s time.
Reviewer - Richard Ely
on - 7/5/20
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