Pear offers winning ‘Hedda Gabler’

From the moment she maligns dear Aunt Juliana’s feathered bonnet, draped carelessly on a corner of the sofa, it’s clear that Hedda Gabler is no sweetheart. In fact, the nasty anti-heroine of Ibsen’s 1891 drama, unlike the animated Nora in “A Doll’s House,” may have fewer redeeming qualities than Lady Macbeth, who at least feels guilty after she kills Duncan. However, Hedda, who seems to have nothing resembling a conscience, is a lot more interesting. Portraying one of the most intriguing female stage roles in early modern drama, Pear Theatre’s artistic director Betsy Kruse Craig rises to the challenge. The fiery Kruse Craig portrays a manipulative but nuanced woman trapped by her body, her boredom and her era, doomed to a loveless marriage in a patriarchal society. Unlike Nora who closes the door on her marriage at the end of “A Doll’s House,” the conniving Hedda is a self-admitted coward with no prospects for happiness. Instead, she derives pleasure out of taunting visitors with her father’s fabled pistols and impeding the happiness of others.

Is Hedda mad or just manipulative? Can a contemporary theatergoer feel sorry for her or just rage and disbelief? Kruse Craig handles those dilemmas with nuance and bravado. It’s her show, and it’s a winner.

Henrik Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler,” directed by Dale Albright and adapted by Pear founder and former artistic director Diana Tasca, continues Thursdays through Sundays through Oct. 28 at the Mountain View theater.

The drama opens on the Oslo living room of Hedda and her husband, the clueless, not-quite-professor George Tesman (Troy Johnson), who has apparently purchased a house beyond their means. They have just returned from a six-month honeymoon, he with reams of notes on his research topic, the domestic industries of Brabant during the Middle Ages, she with reams of purchases, a bad case of boredom and an alluded-to pregnancy.

Then old schoolmate Thea Rysing Elvsted (Damaris Divito) enters the scene, with an abundant mass of curls that triggers Hedda’s animosity. Having walked out on her own loveless marriage, Thea breaks down and admits her passion for Eilert Lovborg (Michael Champlin), the tutor of her stepchildren with whom she has collaborated on his writing.

That further inflames Hedda, because years ago she had a quasi-romantic relationship with Lovborg but suddenly broke it off, suggesting that he kill himself with one of General Gabler’s pistols. Instead, he turns to alcohol and debauchery. After years of dissipation, he’s on the wagon, earning kudos for his writing that puts Tesman’s work to shame. Moreover, he’s still carrying a torch for the inscrutable Hedda.

For Lovborg, the flame still burns, although Champlin himself seems to more fully ignite when under the influence in Act 3. Hedda, beset by cowardice and fear of scandal, taunts him mercilessly but puts the kibosh on infidelity. Instead, she will do is everything in her power to destroy the relationship between Lovborg and Thea, the work they accomplished together and Lovborg himself.

The truth-teller in this many-sided prism is Judge Brack, whose smarmy portrayal by Ron Talbot adds dimension to the drama. Brack, George Tesman’s best friend, who knows Hedda has no love for Tesman, doesn’t even try to conceal his own designs on Hedda. Unable to secure her affection or become the third side of a triangle, he is hell-bent on controlling her, setting off the play’s tragic conclusion.

How can a character like Hedda, whom Ibsen himself calls “ice-cold,” captivate an audience? For one, she is wily and knows how to play people. For another, she is off-balance. And finally, Hedda has another side, which produces a degree of empathy. It wasn’t so long ago that women, denied opportunities of their own, attained social standing only through their husband’s accomplishments. Hedda is locked in that mindset.

Her modus operandi is not that different from that of the traditional wife who sets out to be the woman behind the man, basking in the reflected glory of her husband. This is the life Hedda craves, hoping that her husband will go into politics, a profession for which the plodding, introverted Tesman is eminently unsuited. If so, then why, after all, did she marry him? Nearing the age of 30, she says: “I had danced myself out, my day was done. At least that’s what some people thought.”

Apparently, with no money of her own, despite her upbringing as the daughter of a general, marriage is her only route to social acceptance and financial security.

While the mission of caring Aunt Juliana, lovingly played by Celia Maurice, is other-directed and that of the scholarly Tesman is inner-directed as he pursues his esoteric research, Hedda, sadly, lacks direction altogether, with neither inner resources nor mission. As she tells the equally manipulative Judge Brack, who advises her to find some sort of vocation, she’s fitted only for “boring myself to death.”

Nonetheless, the pace is too lively for an audience to succumb to boredom, thanks to Tasca’s modern adaptation. Plus, interactions between the dense Tesman and the long-suffering Aunt Juliana add moments of well-needed levity. Aunt Juliana keeps delivering hints about Hedda’s pregnancy, which everyone except Tesman picks up. Rounding out the cast is Gretta Stimson as Berte, who struggles to adapt to Hedda’s imperious demands.

Supporting Tasca’s adaptation, Ting Na Wang’s stage design is understated, with a ground-level stage flanked by seating of under 100 split on either side. The Tesman living room features a desk in the middle, a small sofa and fireplace at one end, and a partially offstage anteroom at the other. The costumes, by Melissa Sanchez, amplify the personalities of the characters, contrasting Hedda’s flamboyant attire with the professorial garb of Tesman and Lovborg, Thea’s dark neutrals and Aunt Juliana’s over-the-top hat.

While this show is a tragedy, the lively pacing, the acting and the intimate setting make this “Hedda” a theatrical treat, even amid our own dark times.

Freelance writer Janet Silver Ghent can be emailed at ghentwriter@gmail.com.

What: “Hedda Gabler”

Where: Pear Theatre, 1110 La Avenida St., Mountain View.

When: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, through Oct. 28. A talkback follows the Oct. 21 matinee.

Cost: $35, with senior and student discounts.

Info:Go to The Pear or phone 650-254-1148.

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