In the opening seconds of The Old Globe’s new version of Henrik Ibsen’s 1890 play “Hedda Gabler,” a spare but visually stunning sitting room whirls around on a darkened turntable stage.
It’s a gorgeous and imposing scene, with its lavish and amusingly overlong celadon-hued sofa and its oversize phallic cast-iron stove. But in this production, it’s a gilded cage.
In director Barry Edelstein’s “Hedda,” featuring a bold, muscular and propulsive new translation by Erin Cressida Wilson, Hedda is a fierce and feral predator fighting for power in a society where women have none. Ultimately, she becomes prey when she’s caught in her own devices.
Alexander Hurt, left, Katie Holmes and Charlie Barnett in The Old Globe’s “Hedda Gabler.” (Rich Soublet II)
Film, TV and stage star Katie Holmes stars in the title role of the production that opened Thursday at the Globe, San Diego’s oldest and largest theater.
Her Hedda is spoiled, bored and angrily trapped within the confines of her new, but not fancy enough for her taste, home and overhasty marriage to a man she doesn’t love. She’s also aggressively flirtatious with other men, manipulative and callously cruel, like a cat toying with a mouse before devouring it.
This manifests in a performance where Holmes’ Hedda gathers power by protecting herself with stylized hand gestures created with movement designer Chelsey Arce. To intimidate the men around her, Holmes’ Hedda stands on the couch to tower over their heads. And when she’s not the center of their attention, she shoves aside the production’s onstage pianist to forcefully plonk out her own melodies on the instrument’s lower keys.
Edelstein has taken a lot of big artistic swings with this staging. Most of his ideas work very well. Some don’t.
One of the production’s best features is Wilson’s translation, which runs a tight 90 minutes and is peppered with contemporary words that make the character of Hedda feel more modern. Anger becomes “pissed off,” drunken becomes “hammered” and when Hedda hurls a curse, the F word offers the right visceral punch. She’s the only character in Wilson’s translation who uses modern slang, which amplifies how out of place she feels in constrictive 19th-century Norwegian society.
But because Holmes’ performance as Hedda is so tonally different from the naturalistic performances of the other actors, it can be jarring. Her animalistic twitches, mannerisms and exaggerated facial expressions, which amplify over the course of the play, can be distracting and they feel too big for the 600-seat theater.
Celeste Arias as Thea Elvsted and Katie Holmes as Hedda Gabler in The Old Globe’s “Hedda Gabler.” (Rich Soublet II)
Surrounding Holmes onstage are a strong supporting cast of actors. Alexander Hurt is exceptional as the troubled, erratic and passionate writer Ejlert Lovborg, who is Hedda’s ex-lover. Celeste Arias is luminous and fragile as Thea Elvsted, Lovborg’s big-hearted current lover and secretary. As Hedda’s underachieving new husband George Tesman, Charlie Barnett is adorably youthful, sweet and sincere, but clearly in way over his head emotionally, intellectually and financially.
As the calculating Judge Brack, who will stop at nothing to make Hedda his mistress, Alfredo Narciso is a delicious, multilayered villain. Saidah Arrika Ekulona elegantly represents the old world as George’s tradition-bound Aunt Julie Tesman.
Katie MacNichol comically delivers some deadly side eye as the Tesmans’ disapproving maid Berte. And pianist Korrie Yamaoka provides an eerie, pulsing musical backdrop to the show performing original music composed by Caroline Shaw.
Mark Wendland designed the evocative scenery and David I. Reynoso’s costumes beautifully interpret the characters’ personalities, from Aunt Julie’s period bustle dress to Hedda’s gorgeous and timeless dresses and her form-fitting shirtwaist, which fits her like a warrior’s breastplate as she goes into battle. Heather Gilbert designed lighting and Jessica Paz designed sound.
“Hedda Gabler” has always been one of the most puzzled-about women characters in modern theater. Is she like Medea, taking extreme vengeance for the wrongs done to her? Is she simply a powerless woman fighting the patriarchy? Or is she a cornered animal willing to kill or chew off her own leg to escape the trap she built for herself?
In this production, she’s all three … and more.
‘Hedda Gabler’
When: 7 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Through March 15
Where: The Old Globe Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park, San Diego
Tickets: $61 and up
Phone: 619-234-5623
Online: theoldglobe.org