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Hedda Gabler, New Venture Theatre, Brighton, until Apr 5
12:16pm Friday 28th March 2008
A dark look at the hopeless sense of alienation life can throw up, Henrik Ibsen's romantic tragedy remains a poignant slice of melancholia.
Half-heartedly conforming to the world her terminally dull academic husband George drags her into, Vicky Jarvis captures the ubiquitous despair of Gabler, a calculating and indifferent social chameleon who manipulates her wishy-washy spouse and his suffocating family as they welcome visitors to their new home.
Jack-the-lad Elliot, played with waspish charm by Nick Richards, could give her the life of riot and debauchery she deserves, even dragging George off to an orgy at one point.
Yet their hearts have been chastened, their emotions so stunted by the stuffy confines of polite society that they can view each other with nothing but narcissistic spite.
New Venture's production is rawly produced, simple lighting adding to the relentless bleakness as Gabler toys with pistols and denounces love as "sickening" in her "mortal boredom".
Jarvis's melodramatic performance as Gabler increases in intensity as her sanity fades. Even the faith Elliot's courage gives her falls by the wayside when his apparent suicide proves to be little more than an accident.
Her own death is both a drop of passion in a sea of sloth and a relief from the crushing gloom filling the theatre by the end.
- Starts 7.45pm, Sun 2.30pm only, no performance Mon. Tickets £5-£8.50, call 01273 746118
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