Shortly after Mrs. Hedda Tesman, née Hedda Gabler, returns from her honeymoon, she complains that every room in her new marital home “reeks of lavender and roses,” carrying an inescapable whiff of death. In Remy Bumppo Theatre Company’s new production of Henrik Ibsen’s 1891 play, directed by Marti Lyons, the design team takes this line to heart, using a monochrome purple palette to represent Hedda’s claustrophobic world (scenic design by Joe Schermoly). As she seethes against the confines of a conventional middle-class marriage, flashes of red in the costumes (Kotryna Hilko) and props (Amanda Herrmann) nod to her fiery spirit and hint at dark events to come.
Hedda is a slippery, confounding protagonist, and Aurora Real de Asua takes on the role with quietly manic energy. Wound as tightly as a grandfather clock, she tends to stare hauntingly into the distance until her angst overflows in the form of caustic barbs and panicked gestures. Real de Asua’s intonation as she delivers Ibsen’s text (adapted by Christopher Shinn from the literal translation by Anne-Charlotte Hanes Harvey) sounds sharp and modern in contrast to the rest of the cast, who take a slightly more formal tone. Composer and sound designer Christopher Kriz’s transitional music amplifies Hedda’s restless internal state with electric guitar and drums backed by a relentless, clock-like beat.
While the production design has a clearly discernible vision, several of the characters have room to grow in Remy Bumppo’s staging. Caught up in a messy lust quadrangle, Hedda is often surrounded by men: her sincere if stodgy husband, the historian Jorgen Tesman (Eduardo Curley), and two former suitors who are still determined to seduce the newly married woman, slimy Judge Brack (Greg Matthew Anderson) and dissolute academic Ejlert Lövborg (Felipe Carrasco). In her scenes with each of them, Hedda’s motivations feel murky as she ping-pongs between flirtation, disgust, fear and anger. Perhaps the point is that it’s difficult for a woman with little agency to truly know her own feelings, but there could be more clarity in the production’s point of view about these relationships.
Making for a symmetrical cast list, the play also features three female supporting roles: Miss Juliane Tesman (Annabel Armour), Hedda’s elderly aunt-in-law; Berte (Linda Gillum), the longtime family maid, and Mrs. Thea Elvsted (Gloria Imseih Petrelli), Tesman’s old flame and Hedda’s former schoolmate. Hedda is at her most dislikable when she encounters other women; she repeatedly insults and rebuffs the kindly Aunt Tesman, while she takes a more wheedling tone in Thea’s case.
The dynamic between Hedda and Thea is the most deeply explored relationship in this production. Though not perfect foils, they serve as two complex examples of how women navigate a society that offers them few options for economic or personal autonomy. Coming from humbler circumstances than Hedda, who is a general’s daughter, Thea previously worked as a governess before marrying her employer, a widower two decades her senior. When Lövborg begins to tutor her stepchildren, she develops a close relationship with him and collaborates as an equal — or, more likely, primary — but unrecognized partner in his successful debut book. At the beginning of the play, Thea leaves her unhappy marriage and follows Lövborg to the city, where she encounters Hedda and Tesman for the first time in years.
Many undertones are at play in this reunion. As Thea’s former suitor, Tesman struggles to call her by her married name, a slip of the tongue that Hedda constantly needles him about. Meanwhile, Hedda attempts to rewrite the history of her school days with Thea, insisting that they were close friends despite Thea’s reminders of Hedda’s bullying. Hedda’s ingratiating approach clumsily masks her own lingering interest in Lövborg, as she tries to get information about her former lover from Thea.
If the above sounds like the stuff of soap operas, that’s not unfair, but of course there’s more going on than romantic rivalries. Thea’s path, while far from smooth, offers a glimpse of what Hedda’s life could have been if she’d found an outlet to pursue her own ambition. Petrelli gives a nuanced performance that emphasizes the meaning that Thea finds in researching and writing alongside Lövborg, even if the academic and publishing worlds have no place for her. Hedda, more interested in the pursuit of beauty than academic knowledge, is less willing to compromise, even if this could have saved her.
Without detracting from Real de Asua’s performance, this “Hedda Gabler” feels more like a story of two women than of Hedda alone, which is apt coming from a strongly feminist director like Lyons. Perhaps this focus explains why Hedda’s relationships with the male characters seem underdeveloped. Regardless, in the end, the Hedda and Thea show works pretty well.
Emily McClanathan is a freelance critic.
Review: “Hedda Gabler” (3 stars)
When: Through March 8
Where: Remy Bumppo Theatre Company at Theater Wit, 1229 W Belmont Ave
Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Tickets: $36-$55 at remybumppo.org
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/11/review-hedda-gabler-remy-bumppo/
