Post by Steve on Oct 7, 2023 18:01:27 GMT
Saw the matinee and liked it.
Its fueled by a great idea, and it has great style and focus, but it lacks twists, turns and dramatic resistance by the characters to it's central throughline.
Some knowledge of Hedda Gabler would enhance the experience of seeing this, but it's not a prerequisite.
Great to see Misfits' Antonia Thomas back on stage.
Some spoilers follow. . .
The key plot idea, that a maniacal film director, making a film of Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler," pushes his actors' boundaries to such a degree that the plot of Hedda Gabler starts to cross into real life, is a good one.
It reminds me of Anthony Neilson's "Unreachable," at the Royal Court, in which Matt Smith's film director couldn't curb his obsessions. But what you had there, which you don't have here, was massive entertaining dramatic (and comedic) pushback in the form of Jonjo O'Neill's Klaus Kinskiesque actor.
That's clearly not what Nina Segal is going for, however, preferring to create a more sinister insidious claustrophobic atmosphere, which works for the most part, with Antonia Thomas's Hedda cruelly pushed by degrees into uncomfortable situations by her director, Christian Rubeck's Henrik, who awards himself the part of her tormentor in the movie, just to make things worse. . .
If you've seen Ari Aster's uber-creepy movie, Midsommar, in which tourists find a pagan festival increasingly threatening, you'll recognise the escalating I-think-something-bad-is-happening-but-I-can't-quite-put-my-finger-on-it tone. But again, there are twists and turns in Midsommar, which inject added drama, that are absent here.
Incidentally, I can attest that Segal's other recent play, "War and Culture," at the New Diorama, was jam packed with such entertaining dramatic situations, as Ferdy Roberts' desperate Theatre AD was caught between yet another maniacal (theatre) director and insidiously manipulative Government subsidies. (That play deserves a proper run!)
Antonia Thomas, who was in "Elephants" at Hampstead Downstairs and "Home" at the National Shed, injects her authoritative calmness and into her lead character, the actress playing Hedda Gabler, who her director insists on calling Hedda, which makes her a worthy opponent for her maniacal director as he starts to unnerve her.
Matilda Bailes does a terrific job of injecting some much needed comic relief, as the director's sidekick, and Joshua James is effective but underused as Hedda's movie husband, Tesman.
Overall, it's a great idea, effectively acted, that begged for more dramatic resistance to the plot's machinations.
3 and a half stars from me.
Its fueled by a great idea, and it has great style and focus, but it lacks twists, turns and dramatic resistance by the characters to it's central throughline.
Some knowledge of Hedda Gabler would enhance the experience of seeing this, but it's not a prerequisite.
Great to see Misfits' Antonia Thomas back on stage.
Some spoilers follow. . .
The key plot idea, that a maniacal film director, making a film of Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler," pushes his actors' boundaries to such a degree that the plot of Hedda Gabler starts to cross into real life, is a good one.
It reminds me of Anthony Neilson's "Unreachable," at the Royal Court, in which Matt Smith's film director couldn't curb his obsessions. But what you had there, which you don't have here, was massive entertaining dramatic (and comedic) pushback in the form of Jonjo O'Neill's Klaus Kinskiesque actor.
That's clearly not what Nina Segal is going for, however, preferring to create a more sinister insidious claustrophobic atmosphere, which works for the most part, with Antonia Thomas's Hedda cruelly pushed by degrees into uncomfortable situations by her director, Christian Rubeck's Henrik, who awards himself the part of her tormentor in the movie, just to make things worse. . .
If you've seen Ari Aster's uber-creepy movie, Midsommar, in which tourists find a pagan festival increasingly threatening, you'll recognise the escalating I-think-something-bad-is-happening-but-I-can't-quite-put-my-finger-on-it tone. But again, there are twists and turns in Midsommar, which inject added drama, that are absent here.
Incidentally, I can attest that Segal's other recent play, "War and Culture," at the New Diorama, was jam packed with such entertaining dramatic situations, as Ferdy Roberts' desperate Theatre AD was caught between yet another maniacal (theatre) director and insidiously manipulative Government subsidies. (That play deserves a proper run!)
Antonia Thomas, who was in "Elephants" at Hampstead Downstairs and "Home" at the National Shed, injects her authoritative calmness and into her lead character, the actress playing Hedda Gabler, who her director insists on calling Hedda, which makes her a worthy opponent for her maniacal director as he starts to unnerve her.
Matilda Bailes does a terrific job of injecting some much needed comic relief, as the director's sidekick, and Joshua James is effective but underused as Hedda's movie husband, Tesman.
Overall, it's a great idea, effectively acted, that begged for more dramatic resistance to the plot's machinations.
3 and a half stars from me.
