Hedda Gabler, the daughter of a general, has just married. Her husband Jörgen Tesman, an upcoming historian, is about to be appointed a professor. He thus borrowed some money to offer his demanding wife a life of prosperity and bought a mansion. His opponent, the handsome and more gifted Lövborg, was ditched by Hedda. Lövborg, who used to enjoy spending his time dulling his brilliant intellect with drugs in notorious clubs, was neither a financial nor a social promising perspective for Hedda. Pretty disillusioned, Hedda returns from her honeymoon just to learn that Lövborg has given up his dissolute life. He took her absence as an opportunity to write an outstanding cultural-historical book, which is highly acclaimed by the academic world and therefore makes Tesman’s promotion to professorship rather unlikely. Suddenly, Hedda’s whole life plan goes up in smoke. Against her inclination, she decided to live a life of bourgeois principles. Now that these principles no longer keep what they promised ? i.e. economic security ? she starts hating herself and her environment and runs amok: she unscrupulously mocks her husband, betrays him with a friend of the family, Brack, and torpedoes the relationship between Lövborg and Miss Elvsted out of jealousy; she burns Lövborg’s promising work, drives him back into his addiction and later into committing a suicide »in beauty«. With merciless, raging shrewdness, she attacks the oppressive good-naturedness, behind which people around her are hiding mediocrity and cowardice of life. By brilliantly using manipulation and lie, it takes her just one day and one night to dismantle that world dominated by career ambitions and fear of relegation. In the end, being part of the system, she becomes the target of her own destruction: she cannot break free from the prison she has built without destroying herself.
In his play, first staged at the Hoftheater in Munich in 1891, Ibsen shows an attack on bourgeoisie from the inside. Although it is difficult today to define the bourgeoisie as one single class with shared values, all the bourgeois desires and fears, which have been controlling, regulating and deforming biographies since the 19th century, are established in all financial social classes today. Fear of social decline has become our collective leitmotif. Once more, we are ready for the challenge and cheek of a Hedda Gabler.
In his play, first staged at the Hoftheater in Munich in 1891, Ibsen shows an attack on bourgeoisie from the inside. Although it is difficult today to define the bourgeoisie as one single class with shared values, all the bourgeois desires and fears, which have been controlling, regulating and deforming biographies since the 19th century, are established in all financial social classes today. Fear of social decline has become our collective leitmotif. Once more, we are ready for the challenge and cheek of a Hedda Gabler.
Cast and Creative Team for Hedda Gabler at Schaubühne
Cast
Autor
Henrik Ibsen
Regie
Thomas Ostermeier
Bühne
Jan Pappelbaum
Kostüme
Nina Wetzel
Musik
Malte Beckenbach
Dramaturgie
Marius von Mayenburg
Video
Sébastien Dupouey
Licht
Erich Schneider
Autor
Henrik Ibsen
Regie
Thomas Ostermeier
Bühne
Jan Pappelbaum
Kostüme
Nina Wetzel
Musik
Malte Beckenbach
Dramaturgie
Marius von Mayenburg
Video
Sébastien Dupouey
Licht
Erich Schneider
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