Creative spirits
Ibsen’s masterpiece ‘Hedda Gabler’ dramatizes the inner world of a freethinking woman. A bold new production brings together an extraordinary group of Toronto artists
Difficult female characters are few and far between. Hedda Gabler has been one of the juiciest lead roles for women in theatre since 1891; the original anti-heroine rages against the limitations of her life and the constraints of marriage, manipulating everyone in her reach.
A new production of the play at Coal Mine Theatre (Sunday to June 2) brings together some of Toronto’s coolest women in the arts to tackle Henrik Ibsen’s seminal story.
Fronting the dream team is Diana Bentley, who stars as Gabler. Moya O’Connell directs. Emily Haines of Metric did the score. Liisa Repo-Martell wrote the adaptation. And Horses Atelier co-founders Claudia Dey and Heidi Sopinka contributed costumes.
The story of how these women came to collaborate reveals the tight-knit microcosm of Canada’s theatre world and its intersection with music and fashion.
“It feels very once in a lifetime. One of those very special, magical, witchy moments where all the spokes come together and you can f--king feel it, it’s electric,” said Bentley. “I think we need ‘Hedda Gabler’ right now. I think everybody on this team knows why we need her.”
Bentley, who co-founded Coal Mine in 2014 with her husband, Ted Dykstra, felt spurred to produce the play by the chance to work with O’Connell. “We were in the car and she started talking about Hedda, and I knew.” She ran home and exclaimed to Dykstra that O’Connell should direct “Hedda”; he agreed immediately.
O’Connell echoes the excitement of connecting with Bentley. “When two people meet and there is chemistry between them, something happens that feels poignant, pregnant with
possibility for what could be.”
Based in Vancouver, O’Connell had recently starred in one production of “Hedda Gabler” and directed another. “This play had been following me,” she said. “When something knocks on your door a third time, it’s a sign.”
The allure of Hedda, said O’Connell, is that “she didn’t really fit into her time, but she might not fit into our time either or perhaps any time.” She said Repo-Martell’s adaptation speaks to the era in which the play was originally written, but is not self-consciously period. “It is malleable and open enough that it can be seen through a contemporary lens. Our production is skirting that line, too.”
In turn, O’Connell tapped Emily Haines, lead singer, songwriter and keyboardist for Metric and a member of Broken Social Scene, to write the score. “The first person I thought of when Coal Mine asked me was Emily. I thought, no, she’s gonna be too busy,” said O’Connell. The two have long been friends. “We went out for lunch in Toronto, I just put it on the table in between us.”
Haines said yes. “An opportunity to work with Moya O’Connell is not something I take lightly,” she said. The pair worked on the project together in Joshua Tree, said Haines, “in a cabin called Cryptic Cabin, out under the stars and getting witchy. It was a really cool way to map out the moments and the pacing.”
There is a piano onstage, at the centre of the play, which intrigued Haines. “Instead of just scoring in the abstract, it’s anchored in the piano and that’s something I really relate to.” The piano is a symbol of Hedda’s self-expression — or lack thereof — and domestic captivity.
“I’m always interested in themes of complex female empowerment; it’s kind of my district,” said Haines.
The play’s melodic theme is a song from her recent work, aptly called “Be Careful What You Wish For.”
Some of Bentley’s wardrobe for Hedda is from Toronto fashion brand Horses Atelier, designed by Heidi Sopinka and Claudia Dey. One notable piece is a ruffled black sleeveless blouse from the new collection that references both a men’s tuxedo shirt and Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings of flowers.
“They create these dramatic moments with Victorian references and they feel so powerful, deeply feminine and utilitarian,” said O’Connell. “They kind of do what the production seeks in that it has this open vein to the past but is very much of the moment.”
Dey, a playwright and author, began her career in stage work, said O’Connell, “so I know she has a very deep understanding of theatre.”
The play is about exploding a private world, said O’Connell, so the set design is deliberately intimate — the theatre, in its new space on the Danforth, has about 100 seats. “When you walk out of a show (at Coal Mine), your molecules have altered because of proximity.”
For “Hedda Gabler,” which takes place in one sitting room over 48 hours, she wanted it to feel like you are in the room. “We’ve managed to create a deep, long thrust, a very open big space, long lines to travel for actors. This play has a lot of force to it, a lot of velocity. When they are peeled apart or undone they have room to explore that.”
When leaving the theatre with those altered molecules, Bentley wants “people to question what it means to be bad.”
Ibsen is exploring the way we grapple with the darker aspects of being human, said O’Connell. “I think there is a central battle in the play: what it means to be free, to be the truest part of yourself. Whether that means self-sacrifice and living for others or if it means living for yourself.”
It’s a messy thing, being human. This team is not going to flinch from tearing into the ugly truths.
‘‘ I’m always interested in themes of complex female empowerment; it’s kind of my district.
EMILY HAINES LEAD SINGER,
SONGWRITER AND KEYBOARDIST FOR METRIC