Gender
issues or psychological profile?
.
Francesca: An amazing,
wrenching performance by Ruth Wilson in Hedda Gabler, left you wondering if she was she
highlighting gender discrimination, or slipping in and out of madness?
.
Henri: Many of us enter the
shadows of insanity now and then. Some stay there longer than others. Ibsen
knew that about himself.
.
 |
| Photo: Jan Versweyveld |
Francesca: She was trapped.
.
Henri: So she said. But in a
modern context, and Ivo had made it a modern treatment, there are alternatives
to being trapped.
.
Francesca: So you’re saying
it was more of a story of mental illness?
.
Henri: To a lesser extent we
all think about and even sometimes do the things that Hedda did. She felt
trapped, she felt powerless, she was jealous. It was the extremes she went
to that made us think she was overreaching and overreacting. Taunting Thea.
Sabotaging Eilert’s recovery from alcoholism. Suggesting he commit suicide by
giving him a gun. Burning his manuscript.
.
Francesca: Was she rational
in these acts? Did she see it as important to her own survival?
.
Henri: Possibly. But she was
also unpredictably irrational. Smashing and strewing the flowers. Stapling them
to the walls. No one saw her end coming. I see it as more
about self-destruction and mental instability than just gender.
.
Francesca: Chicken or the
egg?
___________
Voice-over
This was no film of a
theatrical performance shot by a videocam stuck in a corner of the theatre. The
towercam swoops, the zoom focuses in on close-ups, the voices of the audience
come from all around, an interview with director and cast is cleverly placed in
the interval break film. In some ways, better than being in a cheap seat at the
theatre. What a way to see a play. A must-see.
...
No comments:
Post a Comment