Hedda Gabler

Too frightened of scandal to become involved with a brilliant writer, Hedda Gabler opts instead for a conventional but loveless marriage. But, when her first love returns with a masterpiece that might threaten her husband’s career, Hedda decides to take drastic and fatal action.

Universally condemned in 1890 when it was written, Hedda Gabler has subsequently become one of Ibsen’s most performed and studied plays. Blending comedy and tragedy, Ibsen probes the thwarted aspirations and hidden anxieties of his characters against a backdrop of contemporary social Habits and hypocrisies.

This Methuen Drama Student Edition is published with Michael Meyer’s classic translation, and with commentary and notes by Dr. Sophie Duncan. These offer a contemporary lens on the play’s gender politics, and consider some key twentieth and twenty-first century productions of Hedda Gabler, which include actresses like Maggie Smith, Harriet Walker, and Ruth Wilson taking on the iconic titular role.