"Hedda Gab L'"Er , " Henrik Ibsen's Enduringly Popular Drama About a Po
'~~l~ N; EASTERN ILLINOIS ~;\; I \'ERS I TY Cl I. \HI .ESTO:-':, 11.1.1.'\OIS ()IU2() ··M. r..w/Ul!imi ' Theatre Arts Departmen t ~~~ (217) 581-3 110
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Novembe r 11, 1986
"Hedda Gab l'"e r , " Henrik Ibsen's enduringly popular drama about a poisone d, poisonous, mischief-making woman, will be presented by the University Theatre at Eastern Illinois Uni versity beginning Thursday, November 20 at 8 p.m. Graduate student Karen Vogt will be featured in the central role that has continually attracted some of the world's great est actresses since the play first struck audiences like a thunderbolt allover Europe and America in the 1890's.
Some of these stars who have delineated the fiercely neurotic passions of a lady caged in a milieu of mediocrity, have been Mrs. Fiske, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Mme. Nazimova, Eva LeGallienne, Irene Worth, Maggie Smith, Eleanora Duse, Blanche Yurka, Claire Eames, and Claire Bloom in a highly praised presentation in New York in 1971. That was the 22nd professional production of "Hedda Gabler" to be seen in New York within 73 years, to make it rank almost with "Hamlet" in the frequency of its presentations there.
"Hedda Gabler" must be on the othe most flawless plays ever written," was the opinion given by Clive Barnes in the New York Times, in reviewing Miss Bloom's production, which he and all other critics acclaimed as having a greater relevance in the 1970's, due to the upsprining Women's Lib movement, than ever before. Everyone agreed that it is the one play among the dozen classics of the Norwegian master dramatist that had not dated at all.
The story unfolded in "Hedda Gabler" is of a young woman of upper class background, the daughter of a general, whose dangerously tempestuous nature had warned off so many suitors that she had "danced herself out" and so had settled for marriage to a dull, mediocre pedant with whom she is bored to death. Thrashing about in the narrow social sphere in which she is trapped, she contrives little excitements for herself that have the effect of destroying all the lives around her.
Featured in the cast with Miss Vogt at the Doudna Fine Arts Center Theatre will be Benjamin Livingston as Hedda's stuffy husband, Tesman, tiresomely devoted to writing a book on the domestic industries of Brabant in the Middle Ages, and T. James Estep as Lovborg, Tesman's brilliant academic rival (he writes books on big, vibrant themes, like the march of civilization). -more- Lovborg is ~he ~enious-rake Hedda had once driven away, pistol in hand, when out of cowardly puritanism she had felt too attracted to him for safety. Now, jealous over another woman's having inspired Lovborg to write his important book, she burns up his manuscript, cunningly drives him to backslide into drunkeness and disgrace -- and presents him with that pistol she had once threatened to use on him, to use on himself.
"Who would want to meet such a fiendish woman as this?" asked drama critic T.E. Kalem in his Time Magazine review of Claire Bloom's 1971 performance of "Hedda" and he replied to his rhetorical question: "For 80 years playgoers around the world have been extremely interested in meeting Hedda."
Jill Taylor will have the role of Thea Elvstedt, who inspired and regenerated Lovborg, to Hedda's envy, and had had the courage, lacking in Hedda, to desert her dull husband. John Carmin will portray the sardonic bachelor, Judge Brack, another wary former suitor or Hedda's who, after her marriage to Tesman, plans to form a cosy triangle in the Tesman house hold. Robin Page will be seen as the plodding pedant's devoted aunt and Eileen Sullivan as a servant in the Tesman horne.
Dr. Terry Allen is directing this famous saga of the pistol-weilding "harpy woman," as Ibsen called her, and C.P. Blanchette is designing the setting for the horne Tesman fatuously mortgaged himself to provide for Hedda. Nancy Paule is designing the turn-of-the-cent u~ · ' costumes.
Other performances are schedule _ 8 p.m. November 21, 22, 24 and at 2 p.m. Sunday, November 23.
Tickets are $4 for adults, $3 for senior citizens and children and $2 for EIU students. Tickets are available at the Fine Arts Ticket Office, open daily Monday through Friday, from 1 to 5 p.m. Reservations and ticket information can be obtained by calling 581-3110 during ticket office hours.
#### CONTACT: Mr. J. Sain FAT-lOS 581-3110 or Dr. Terry Allen, Director FAT-146 581-3110