Emporia State’s Theatre Department is ending the theater season with Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen’s psychological drama “HeddaGabler.” The play will run April 21-24 and April 27-May 1 in the Frederickson Theatre. All performances begin at 7:30 p.m.
“There aren’t a whole lot of bells and whistles and a whole lot of broad action, it’s a psychological play, and it demands maturity,” Jim Ryan, director of “Hedda” and professor of communications and theatre said.
Ryan said the play centers around one character, a woman by the name of HeddaGabler, played by Kelsey Fredericks, and the interactions other characters have with her. He said the play was a part of Ibsen’s realist phase in his writing and deals with the influence of heredity and environment on behavior.
“(She) was raised by a real strict, domineering, military man named General Gabbler and it’s sort of shaped the way she deals with other people. It’s her story and those individuals who come in contact with her. It’s her desire to have power over others and influence other people,” Ryan said.
Senior theatre major Scott Swezey plays Hedda’s husband, George Tessman. He said his character gets manipulated by his wife, but continues to see the good in her and not the bad. He said to show how his character was influenced by heredity, he worked with costar Brianne Simon, who plays his aunt, to mirror each other’s mannerisms and show congruity between the two characters.
“I guess a lot of what I did was I looked at his background and the thing that the director really wanted to stress with us is that these characters were products of their upbringing,” Swezey said.
Ryan said Ibsen is a truly important playwright in history and that Hedda is one of his most important plays. He said it is a challenge for actors and because it is in the Frederickson theatre, which is a smaller space, it demands subtle acting.
“It’s one of the truly important plays in the canon of dramatic literature, it’s a play that had a great affect on the development of dramatic literature and the techniques of writing realistic plays,” Ryan said.
Senior theatre major Lindsay Roland, who plays TheaElvstead, said the play is not very plot driven, so it’s easy for the audience to get caught up in the characters and their problems.
“I would encourage people to come because this isn’t a show that they’re going to get to see very often,” Roland said.
Swezey said Ibsen is regarded nationally as the second best playwright to William Shakespeare because during the 1800s when he was writing, no one knew what he was doing because he was ahead of his time.
“It would be like today, an Eskimo revolutionizing theater and no one would know what it is because no one at the time read Norwegian drama,” Swezey said.
Ryan said a few new things have been brought to the text and that the overall quality of the play will be interesting. He said anyone who comes will be intrigued by the story. Swezey said the acting is going to be phenomenal.
“It’s sexy, it’s dark, it’s violent – it’s basically everything that modern drama is in film,” Swezey said.
Tickets for the play are $5 for students, $8 for seniors and $10 for adults and are available from the university box office at 620-341-6378 or toll free at 877-341-6378.
Loading ...
