Patrick Marber’s take on Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler comes to Wolverhampton.

Fresh from a celebrated National Theatre premiere, Patrick Marber’s new version of Hedda Gabler is now embarking on a hotly anticipated UK tour, stopping off at the Wolverhampton Grand this month.

Widely viewed as one of the greatest female roles in theatre history, the title character of Henrik Ibsen’s 1891 masterpiece already comes laden with a huge weight of expectation for any actor with the courage to take her on. But with Ruth Wilson’s devastating star turn in London having been declared one of the top performances of the year, for her touring counterpart Lizzy Watts, there’s even more than usual to live up to. 

“I was really nervous before I started,” she admits. “But as soon as you start getting into it, it becomes much easier. What’s so brilliant about playing Hedda is that she seems to change so much from one day to the next. She’s all over the place, and that’s actually really fun. It’s the first time I’ve played a part where I don’t feel like I can go too far with her.”

In some readings of the play, there’s been an impulse to delve into Hedda’s psychology for explanations of her erratic behaviour. Trapped in an unhappy marriage by her own professed cowardice and paralysing fear of public opinion, the newlywed becomes increasingly unpredictable, her frustration at her lot manifesting in everything from extra-marital flirtations and emotional blackmail to - in this production at least - a chaotic episode in which she ends up stapling dying flowers to the walls that imprison her. In this version, however, the team prefer to let the text and actions speak for themselves. 

“It’s really liberating not having to get bogged down in questioning every action and pulling apart every emotional turn,” Watts continues. “Not having to explain too much as I was going along actually helped me to develop the character quicker than normal.”

This freed-up approach is not unique to the portrayal of Hedda. In fact, it’s a defining feature across the work of the production’s Belgian director, Ivo van Hove. Actors learn their lines before rehearsals start, and the idea is that by homing in on the script and working through it chronologically, the story will emerge more organically than in a rehearsal process stuffed with supplementary research and studied character development strategies.

“We’ve never really talked about specific psychologies behind any of the characters,” says Richard Pyros, who plays Eilert Lövborg, Hedda’s ex-lover and her husband’s former colleague. “Instead, you sort of just have bodies in a space acting really impulsively, and the way the audience reads that information can be filtered through their own ideas of what the characters’ psychologies are. In a way, it feels a lot more like real life. You don’t tend to sit back and think, ‘Am I anxious? Am I depressed?’ It usually takes someone else to tell you that.”

“It’s the sort of thing that, as actors, we might have been apprehensive about going in,” adds Adam Best, who plays family friend and would-be lover to Hedda, Judge Brack. “But it’s been really interesting. Having learned all the lines before you start actually feels very freeing, because all the emphasis is on the relationships.”

It’s not the only way in which van Hove has stripped away the standard features of traditional approaches to the text. Working together with designer and long-term collaborator Jan Versweyveld, he has developed an unspecified, loosely defined modern setting, removing the stiffness of period costume without adding in the digital distractions that tend to dominate our lives today. 

A simple set evokes the minimalism of a chic, contemporary apartment, all neutral colours and free from clutter. But for all its elegance, there’s an unsettling air of decay about the place, a sense of something hastily thrown up and incomplete - a little like the unfulfilling future to which Hedda has condemned herself. 

“It’s really key that everything you see is from Hedda’s point of view,” explains associate director Rachel Lincoln. “There’s a sort of vast, empty space that Hedda inhabits, but there are no doors, so no way to escape from her prison. You’ll also see buckets and old tables and scruffy sofas, like everything is in a state of construction or deconstruction - almost like the builders have just kind of abandoned it and gone home.”

It’s oddly exposing, the fiery Hedda thrown into sharp relief against the blandness and emptiness of the world around her. Much like the satin nightdress that she wears throughout, it’s both luxurious and rather insubstantial.

“There’s an idea that she never gets dressed because she never really wants to leave the house,” explains Watts. “But also when she’s not wearing her dressing gown, it’s very exposing. It’s great for accessing her vulnerability, which isn’t always the thing you first think of with Hedda Gabler, but is something this production taps into a lot.”

Music, too, is modern and accessible, with Joni Mitchell’s Blue and Nina Simone’s Wild Is The Wind used to evoke particular moods. It’s “almost like a film score”, says Christine Kavanagh, who plays Aunt Juliana, adding, “I think the Patrick Marber adaptation is very fresh and contemporary. Together with the music, I think it will be hugely appealing for younger audiences.”

Hedda Gabler shows at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre from Tuesday 23 until Saturday 27 January.

By Heather Kincaid