Joy Watters reviews the Royal Lyceum's revival of an iconic play.
The lights go up and the gauzy dustsheets covering the furniture of the Tesman drawing room are slowly peeled back making, way for the maelstrom of emotion that is about to erupt.
Henrik Ibsen’s classic work is here brought to the stage in Richard Eyre’s version by Amanda Gaughan, making her directional debut for the Lyceum. The unravelling of the recent marriage of Hedda and her husband George Tesman unfolds over a period of 36 hours with the sense of tragedy mounting by the minute.
Hedda is the embodiment of the clash between two eras. On one hand, she immerses herself in Victorian romanticism. A leavening element is that she tends to have a fit of the vapours when anything vulgar has the temerity to enter her life. Entwined in her psyche is the espousing of the values of modern woman, refusing to let her gender prevent from entering into power struggles. She is determined to control what men do, whatever the consequences.
Nicola Daley’s Hedda is an intriguing, edgy, boyish creature, only occasionally allowing outsiders to see the lost soul within. She has little time for her own sex unless she is insulting or manipulating them. In contrast, her eyes flash intoxicatingly when she thinks she has the upper hand in her relationships with men. In a performance characterised by its physicality, Daley gets right under the skin of this ultra-complex character who is by turns infuriating, intriguing, confused and ultimately tragic.
Benny Young’s Judge Brack has both the bearing and manner of a man in the public eye showing a threatening lasciviousness when alone with Hedda.
It is beautifully lit by Simon Wilkinson with Jean Chan’s costumes skilfully underlining the themes of the work.
Runs until April 11.
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