Hedda (NHB Modern Plays) E-Book

Lucy Kirkwood

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

A bold new version of Ibsen's tragic masterpiece by an award-winning modern writer of Chimerica. In Lucy Kirkwood's version of Hedda Gabler, Ibsen's nineteenth-century heroine is relocated to present-day London, to startling effect. Hedda, still mourning for the father she adored, returns from honeymoon with a husband she doesn't love, to a flat and a pregnancy she doesn't want. Trapped by her past and terrified of her future, bored by her life but too cowardly to walk away from it, she finds herself caught between three men. And in the end, something has to give. Lucy Kirkwood's Hedda premiered at the Gate Theatre, London, in August 2008. 'a Hedda for our times' Guardian Ibsen's 19th-century masterpiece relocated thrillingly to London 2008... Kirkwood makes us believe absolutely in this modern-day world of mountainous mortgages and bitchy academia' Evening Standard

Leseprobe

HEDDA

Henrik Ibsen

adapted byLucy Kirkwood

from a literal translation byAnne & Karin Bamborough

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Dedication

Original Production

Characters

Act One

Act Two

Act Three

Act Four

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Many thanks to Carrie Cracknell, Mel Kenyon,Kirsty Coombs, Bryan Dick,Nils Hognestad for his Norwegian tongue andHumphrey Ker for his encyclopaedic knowledge of firearms

Hedda was first performed at the Gate Theatre, London, on 21 August 2008, with the following cast:

HEDDA GABLER

Cara Horgan

GEORGE TESMAN     

Tom Mison

JULIA TESMAN

Cath Whitefield

THEA ELDRIDGE

Alice Patten

TOBY BRACK

Christopher Obi

ELI LONGFORD

Adrian Bower

All other parts played by members of the company

Director

Carrie Cracknell

Designer

Holly Waddington

Lighting Designer

Katharine Williams

Sound Designer

Edward Lewis

Characters

JULIA TESMAN

GEORGE TESMAN

HEDDA GABLER

THEA ELDRIDGE

TOBY BRACK

ELI LONGFORD

A CLEANING LADY (to be doubled with Julie if required)

A forward slash (/) indicates the point at which the next speaker interrupts.

A dash (–) indicates an interruption or unfinished speech.

ACT ONE

The present day. A three-bedroom flat in Notting Hill, London. A fixer-upper, it has enormous potential to be beautiful if the owners have the time and money to spend on stripping away the bad wallpaper and ancient plumbing. It also has enormous potential not to be. There are empty suitcases spread about the floor.

JULIA enters. Late thirties. She would have been a very good mother. She buys her clothes on the basis of how well they will wash as opposed to how good they look, and is wearing a pashmina scarf that sits badly with the rest of her outfit. She carries a bunch of flowers and a plastic bag. She’s nervous of the space, and of the sense of another woman in this space.

JULIA. Hello? George?

Beat.

Georgy?

Beat.

Anyone up?

She puts down the flowers and the plastic bag and looks around the room, pretending to herself that she’s not being nosy. She opens a door, leading to a bedroom, off. As the door opens, a dress is revealed hanging on the back of it, partially covering a full-length mirror. JULIA .