MEDIATHEK

"For long, Ibsen believed in women: she is his ideal social ferment, urging and driving her husband to the heights, his stimulus and spur. In Hedda Gabler he parodied this faith: the demonic power of a heroine who is sick and discordant through and through is merely enough to break the benign influence of her rival on a young man, who in this parodistic play parodies his own death: he is unable to die in beauty" (F.X.Šalda)

Hedda Gabler is one of Ibsen's last plays, and is one of his pinnacles of his remarkable work. Hedda is a charakter who is searching, groping, erring. She is a strong personality who towers considerably over the others, but social convention does not allow her to steer her live in another direction. The physical presence of the heroine on the stage is, in Mikulášek's production, multiplied by the presence of four other stand-ins, who take on Hedda's gestures and gait, sketching in the rest of her relationships with the other characters. The multiple presence of Hedda underscores the keye theme -the desire for liberation from stifling convention, from ordinariness and feelings of futility. The physical activity does not always correspond to the text -there are devisions, movements becomes independent and shifts the meaning of the words that are spoken. The highly artifical form of Jan Mikulášek's produktion makes much use of the artistic side, expressive gestures and musical references.

Reviews:
"To detached for some, too emotionally brutal for others, too simplifying for some, and for others a remarkably metaphorical production. There is no need to come to a clear coclusion - the very interest, the variety of reactions, shows that Mikulášek's, Cpin and Mikulková's Hedda is a remarkable piece."
(by David Drozd, Host)

"The colour composition and determinacy leaves no visually "deaf" spots in the set; the huge brim of anxious aunt Julie's hat complements, in its circular proportions, the geometrically-designed backdrop. The costumes do not depart from the tonal range of "noncolours" - they oscillate between grey, black and white variations on a theme. The art designer's captivating work is a discord of futurising colour, historicising cut and careful work with hairstyles"
(by Tomáš Kubart, www.rozrazilonline.cz)

"The powerfull production design, treading a border between Art Nouveau and Edvard Munch's expressionism (Marek Cpin) and the brilliantly-chosen music, sometimes in the style of the Kronos Quartet, and at others in the Nirvana Spirit of Kurt Cobain, makes Hedda Gabler a unique opportunity for penetrating the otherwise cold Scandinavian soul.
(by Martin Jeroušek, MF DNES)

[JUM]

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17th International Festival Theatre Pilsen Booklet (Printed Edition)