Hedda Gabler (NHB Classic Plays) - Softcover

Thrilling... re-administers, as if for the first time, the devastating shock and the sheer affront of Ibsen's drama. --Independent

A dazzlingly ironic Hedda: one aware of life's absurdity and viewing it with a mixture of dark humour and angry exasperation... Hedda is often regarded as the female Hamlet. But Eyre reminds us that it is a great polyphonic play as well as a commanding title-role. --Guardian

Richard Eyre's fleet, new version penetrates to the very heart of the play. Not a nuance goes unnoticed, not an irony passes undetected. But that is to make the evening sound altogether too cerebral. This is a Hedda Gabler that also gets you in the guts, as we watch a vain, shallow, dangerously irresistible young woman hurtling towards disaster that will embrace both her and those who are fatally under her spell... A classic that feels continually alive, fresh-minted and unexpectedly witty... gripping... brilliantly illuminating... electrifying. --Telegraph

Arriving home after an extended honeymoon Hedda Gabler struggles with an existence that is, for her, devoid of excitement and enchantment. Filled with a passion for life that cannot be confined by her marriage of 'perfect home', Hedda strives to find a way to fulfil her desires by manipulating those around her...Richard Eyre will direct his own version Ibsen's play at the Almeida, opening in March 2005. Playing Hedda is Eve Best, who shot to attention in her first role in 'Tis Pity She's a Whore with Jude Law. She won the Critics Circle Best Actress Award for Mourning Becomes Electra at the National Theatre, where she was also a stand-out in Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia and as Masha in Nicholas Wright's version of Three Sisters.