Hedda Gabler
Audition Notes

We will be using a new adaptation with a modern setting – the precise period is not specified. The play's themes are timeless and universal: it creates its own world. Our script is concise, colloquial and direct, leaving much for the actors to convey via its subtext. There are no long speeches.

Hedda Tesman, nee Gabler Playing age 30-40. Proud, clever, headstrong, wilful, haughty, sarcastic, ambivalent, devious, manipulative, frustrated, bored, inclined to rage which she can barely suppress. A magnetic presence - the focus of the play - whose sense of self and pursuit of an aesthetic ideal separates her from the other characters, and from us. On stage almost throughout.

Jørgen Tesman Around the same age as Hedda, her husband. An academic, expected to become a professor, steady rather than brilliant, naïve, literal, absorbed in his rather arcane work, oblivious to Hedda's passions. Open-hearted, optimistic, devoted to his family. He surprised them and many others by winning Hedda's hand but remains baffled by her. Clearly an important part, on stage a lot.

Judge Brack Could be 50-70. A confirmed bachelor – in fact a ladies' man, a philanderer. Philosophical, detached, ironic, sardonic. Attractive to Hedda – he understands her best. NOT fatherly. A substantial part.

Eilert Løvborg Male, similar age to Hedda. Like Tesman, an academic, but unlike him, impassioned, spirited, brilliant, impulsive. In love with Hedda and disgraced due to his wild self-indulgence and alcoholism after she rejected him. Also a substantial part.

Aunt Juliana Late 50s - 60s/70s. Everything that Hedda is not: kind, considerate, devoted to her family, self-possessed, calm, conventional. Appears twice, for a few pages each time.

Thea Elvsted 2 years younger than Hedda, and bullied by her at school. Inclined to live her life by sacrificing herself for others: besotted with Løvborg and his work. Somehow, the self-effacing Thea has a power to influence men for the better which Hedda finds both infuriating and incomprehensible. Again, a substantial part.

Berthe 50s/60s, perhaps 70s. Long with the Tesman family: until recently Aunt Juliana's, now the Tesmans' maid. Not the brightest, but by no means silly or stupid. Eager to please, a little anxious. Several brief entrances, a few lines.

A reading of the play is set for 7.30 on Wed 9 Oct at the Studio Theatre. This will NOT be an audition. Auditions will be held at 7.30 on Wed 23 Oct, again in the Studio Theatre. If this is impossible please contact the director, Graham Smith by email: graham.smith30030@gmail.com

Rehearsals will be two evenings a week throughout Jan, Feb, Mar 2025. Seven performances are scheduled for the week 24-29 Mar 2025.