The consummate actors performing this clever adaptation of Ibsen’s play grasp their material by the scruff of its neck, look it straight in the eye and feel its dark heart beating. The action is confined to the well-appointed respectability of a drawing room, yet the room is a melancholy world, and the play a raw landscape of human emotions where the desire to dominate others reigns. The performers embody their characters’ pasts – disappointments, betrayals, shaken morals, lusts, lost loves – and Robin Thompson’s manipulative Hedda is a fearsome centre; she builds up then cruelly dismantles those around her, turning against herself in the process. In the capable hands of Palindrome Theatre, Ibsen’s extraordinary picture of personal relationships rings cathartic and true.
Hill Street Theatre, 5 – 29 Aug (not 10, 17, 24), 2.15pm (3.45pm), £6.00 – £8.00, fpp270.
tw rating 4/5
[dp]
Sections: by Dora Petherbridge - ED2011 Theatre Reviews - tw rating 4/5 | Tags: Hill Street Theatre, Palindrome Theatre, Remarkable Arts
Also from ThreeWeeks...
ED2011 Theatre Review: Shylock (Assembly Theatre Presents Guy Masterson – Theatre Tours International)
Although a take on Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice’, the main character in this intriguing one man show is not the infamous Skylock, but Tubal, the Jewish antihero’s friend –...
ED2011 Theatre Review: Of Sound Mind (Ronnie Dorsey Productions And Scamp Theatre)
“It was about getting rid, not counting.” This haunting and disturbing recurrent theme is evident throughout this one-woman monologue. Abused at the hands of men, both sexually and emotionally, our...
ED2011 Theatre Review: Belt Up’s The Boy James (Belt Up Theatre In Association With Jethro Compton Ltd)
Relationships and adulthood rarely simplify as they develop, and it can often be our fragile memories which stand firmer at the root of our emotions. As the audience is ushered...
GET ALERTS OF NEW THREEWEEKS CONTENT: Click here to sign up to the free ThreeWeeks email
