Hedda start

In the past,many great actors including Ingrid Bergman,Annette Bening,Judy Davis and Cate Blanchett have been drawn to play this eternally intriguing character. Recently,Mumbai-based Sheeba Chadha too couldn’t resist the temptation of portraying this unsympathetic protagonist. She was given the option of choosing one of Ibsen’s plays by a famously reclusive theatre director. And she chose Gabler. “I was not familiar with Hedda till I started reading the play in January. Of all of Ibsen’s plays that I’ve read,Hedda Gabler roused me enough viscerally to take up the role,” says the film and theatre actor.

Chadha is aware of the challenges that Gabler poses. “She is an extremely conflicting and conflicted character. I have still not formed enough conclusions to be able to pin her down,” she says. And Chadha is happy that she hasn’t read much about this controversial character. This leaves her free to interpret Gabler her way,apart from following the vision of her director (who prefers to stay anonymous). Gabler,the daughter of an aristocratic General,is married to an aspiring young academic,George Tesman,more out of boredom than love. Soon she plots against the brilliant and dissolute Eilert Lovborg,an old admirer of hers and a rival of her husband’s for an academic post. Slowly she begins to find herself drawn into the clutches of the predatory Judge Brack,who is keen on establishing a menage a trois.

Chadha considers Gabler to be the toughest and “most taxing” role she has ever played. Apart from the grueling rehearsal schedule,what’s obviously strenuous for Chadha is that Gabler is constantly in focus throughout the two-and-a-half-hour play. “It’s hugely demanding into be in Hedda’s world,” she says. The actor lists her role in C For Clown (“for sheer physicality”),Eugene Ionesco’s The Chairs and Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead as other demanding ones. This year,The Blue Mug,a play directed by her husband Atul Kumar,had her devote more time to theatre and take a break from television. With more shows of The Blue Mug scheduled this year,her break from the small screen is likely to be a lengthy one. “I want to do one more new play this year,” she adds.

Though Indian theatre artists often succumb to the pull of European plays,Hedda Gabler doesn’t see,to fare as one of their favourites. Chadha’s co-actor Denzil Smith offers his reasons. “This play is very complex and dark. It is also at times tagged as dated,” he says. Chadha,however,argues that the play has risen above the social setting even though they remain faithful to the text and the period. “There has been no change in the text for this production. In fact,the characters will be seen in costumes designed by Tabasheer Zutshi,” she adds. The other actors who will be inhabiting Ibsen’s world this week are Tillotama Shome,Shipra Singh,Vera Abadan,Neeraj Kabi and Samar Sarila.

After the shows at Prithvi,the play will be staged at the National Centre for Performing Arts on July 3 and 4. Hedda Gabler premiered in Bangalore in February and was produced by Gomber Education Foundation. The play will travel to New Delhi later this year.