Previews: HEDDA GABLER at FineLine Theatre Arts

FineLine Theatre Arts, a performing arts studio in New Milford CT, produces a quarterly, one-weekend-only series called “Classics in Performance”. These all-volunteer cast and crew productions directly benefit FineLine Theatre Arts' annual student scholarship funds. This series was conceived by and is directed by Drama Director, Robin Frome, for the past four years. The performances occur in a black box studio theatre space on the second floor of FineLine, with the seating flexibility to create spaces from a basic proscenium stage to theater in the round. Past performances include Shakespeare, Sophocles and Pinter.

This October, Frome chose Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler and set it in 1966 in upstate New York. He feels that this era suits the play well because it incorporates the stifling, still-existing Victorian morals vs an emerging push towards the more liberal Bohemia of the young, post-college couples settling in the greater Manhattan area. The young characters in this play range from erudite history professors to disturbed poets, where Hedda is sadly trapped between these two worlds. Period Costumes and a simple farmhouse living room set bring this particular genre take to fruition.