The Witham, Barnard Castle – 22 November 2019
4****
The Castle Players present Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, an amateur group by name but not an amateur production by any means.
Libby Harding directed a small but wonderful cast in a version set in 1925, more in keeping with Ibsens 1891 debut rather than some of the more modern versions of late. It is set in the main room of the Tesmans new flat – a place Hedda doesn’t want to live and which she can’t begin to decorate due to lack of money
Hedda is complex and elusive, intelligent, yet deeply unfulfilled, bored already by her marriage – aware she is married beneath her.. This model of marital discontent is said to be one of the great parts to which any female actor can aspire and Suzanna Handley tackles the role with gusto. Reclining on dust-sheet covered furniture, her new husband, kindly academic George, is very much in love with her but has no idea how to deal with her; his repeated allusions to her pregnancy actively repulse her. By the time her old school friend (or bully victim) Thea and her former lover, the equally wild Eilert Lovborg suddenly reappear in her orbit, she is a powder keg ready to explode. As she meddles with people’s lives and loves, in a spurious plot to boost George’s career which is, in fact, a desperate attempt to relieve her own tedium, damage is inevitable.
As for the cast themselves, they play their very disparate characters with finesse and sensitivity. Cal Baker’s George is a masterclass in loveable, oblivious bumbling, in stark contrast to Ben Pearson’s oily, devious Brack. Thea, Phoebe Lorenz, is a nervous wreck and Oliver Smith brilliantly portrays the mercurial Lovborg as a man ever on the brink of falling. Of course, the success of the play rests on Hedda’s slim shoulders, and Handley bears the weight with no sign of breaking into a sweat. Her Hedda is a study in manic energy, despairing lethargy and repressed rage. We watch her careering headlong and we know she is going to crash, but we can’t tear our eyes away.
The Witham is intimate, the perfect place to immerse yourself in the perceived stifle of the life of Hedda. There are a few moments of humour – George repeatedly misses the point of Julia Tesman’s (Heather Armstrong) ‘expectations’. And some humour in the sarcasm – mainly from Hedda but also Berte the maid (Isobel Harvey). Within this production some of the sarcasm was just hilarious and nailed perfectly. Essentially though the mood is dark, Hedda’s antagonism drives the action. Whether you are new to Ibsen or have seen the play many times, like all the greats, it was worthy of a visit.