René Augesen Takes On Hedda Gabler

American Conservatory Theater proudly presents Paul Walsh's new translation of Henrik Ibsen's masterful thriller Hedda Gabler, the gripping story of one of the most elusive and controversial heroines in the modern canon, February 9 through March 11.

Press night is Wednesday, February 14 at 8 p.m. Directed by Richard E. T. White, the production is made possible in part by executive producers F. Eugene and Mary S. Metz, and Mr. and Mrs. Steven L. Swig; producers Denise Battista, Marjorie and Joseph Perloff, and Alan L. and Ruth Stein; and company sponsors Priscilla and Keith Geeslin, Burt and Deedee McMurtry, Jeff and Laurie Ubben, and ValueAct Capital.

When A.C.T. staged its hit production of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House in 2004, audiences were compelled by the relevance and complexity of the century-old story of one woman's determined and defiant struggle for independence. Buoyed by A.C.T. core acting company member René Augesen's powerhouse performance as Nora, A Doll's House remains one of the most critically acclaimed productions in recent A.C.T. history.

Augesen returns to Ibsen territory as the title character in Hedda Gabler, an acknowledged masterpiece. In the wake of a tedious honeymoon, Hedda Tesman (whose maiden name is Gabler) returns home to face her new married life-her lavish house, her tenuous wealth, the endless chatter of her new relatives--and, most terrifyingly, her own self. By turns cruel, seductive, and careless, Hedda strikes back at those forces and individuals in her newly minted lifestyle that seek to rob her of her power and freedom-without thought of the consequences. Is Hedda a master manipulator who destroys others out of sheer boredom, or are her actions merely the collateral damage wrought by unfortunate circumstances?

According to Richard E. T. White-whose recent directing credits at A.C.T. include the morally dark, obscenely funny, and blistering productions of Edward Albee's The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? and David Mamet's American Buffalo-Hedda Gabler provokes us to examine how we struggle to define ourselves against the events and conditions of our pasts.

"One reason Hedda stays with us as a character (and why we return to her again and again) is that we all face those moments when the possibility presents itself of mutating, evolving into the person we are meant to be-and what do we do when faced with that choice?" says White. "Ibsen has presented Hedda with a set of substantive choices and we participate with her in the struggle to make the right decision. It's interesting that the title of the play is Hedda Gabler, not Hedda Tesman, or just Hedda. What resonates from that is how we trap ourselves with our own pasts: how the preconceptions we have built up around the theatricality of our own identities become cages. And in this way, how we all-like each of the characters in this play-have touches of both the predator and the prey within us."

Augesen heads a cast featuring some of the most acclaimed actors in the Bay Area. Having appeared alongside Augesen in A.C.T.'s productions of The Rivals, The Gamester, and Night and Day, Anthony Fusco portrays George Tesman, Hedda's naïve, scholarly husband. Most recently seen in A.C.T.'s production of A Christmas Carol, Sharon Lockwood portrays Miss Juliane Tesman, George's well-meaning aunt. Having appeared to acclaim in A.C.T.'s productions of The Little Foxes, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and The Black Rider, Jack Willis portrays Commissioner Brack, the unctuous controller of the Tesman finances who aims to seduce Hedda. Most recently seen alongside Augesen in Carey Perloff's Luminescence Dating at the Magic Theater, Stephen Barker Turner portrays Tesman's professional rival and Hedda's former love, Eilert Lovborg. Recent A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Graduate Finnerty Steeves portrays Hedda's earnest old classmate and Tesman's old flame, Mrs. Elvsted. And former artistic director of Berkeley's Aurora Theatre Company, Barbara Oliver portrays the family maid, Berte.

The design team for A.C.T.'s production of Hedda Gabler includes Kent Dorsey (sets), Sandra Woodall (costumes), Alexander V. Nichols (lights), John Gromada (sound design and original music compositions). Dylan Russell is the assistant director for the production.

Henrik Ibsen wrote Hedda Gabler in part as a response to a situation he faced similar to the one experienced by Hedda herself. In 1889 in the small Alpine town of Gosensass, Ibsen met an
18-year-old girl named Emilie Bardach, with whom he engaged in a brief liaison. While the relationship with the young, charismatic woman promised to change his life utterly, leaving his wife for Emilie was a commitment he was unable to make. His own fear, coupled with the desire to remain in a zone of comfort in his life and for stability and respect, constrained him. In the biography The Modern Ibsen: A Reconsideration, Herman Weigand deemed Hedda Gabler-written soon after Ibsen's ill-fated romance-"the coldest and most impersonal of Ibsen's plays." Other biographers have theorized that Ibsen had to exorcize his emotional attachment to Emilie by struggling to become yet more detached and
objective in his art.

When Hedda Gabler debuted in 1891, it was panned by critics for being morally irresponsible, but thrived thanks to its championing by some of Ibsen's greatest admirers-including George Bernard Shaw-and generations of celebrated actors who found in Hedda one of the most intriguing and challenging female roles in modern drama. Referred to as the King Lear of the classical woman's repertory, Hedda has been played by actors as diverse as Eleanora Duse, Ingrid Bergman, Kate Burton, Dianne Wiest, Martha Plimpton, and, last year, Cate Blanchett. A classic that has stood many adaptations and manipulations, Hedda Gabler has even been performed by an almost all robot cast (in last season's off-Broadway hit Heddatron).

Directed by Richard E.T. White, Paul Walsh's Translation of Ibsen's Masterwork Plays A.C.T. February 9 through March 11. -- www.act-sf.org