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| Claire Bloom. |
Note: Several entries beginning with the letter H were inadvertently overlooked when their turn came to be posted. They are now being posted, albeit belatedly and out of alphabetical order.
HEDDA GABLER [Dramatic
Revival] A: Henrik Ibsen; TR: Christopher Hampton; D: Patrick Garland; DS: John
Bury; P: Hillard Elkins; T: Playhouse Theatre; 2/17/71-6/15/71 (51)
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| Roy Shulman, Donald Madden, Claire Bloom, Robert Gerringer. |
One of two Ibsen revivals (the other was A Doll’s House, previously posted)
produced in repertory and starring Claire Bloom—then the wife of producer
Hillard Elkins. Bloom achieved success as Nora, but was less admired for her
Hedda Gabler.
ve Barnes considered Hedda
Gabler an ”immediate and thrilling production,” but his peers tended to
side with Stanley Kauffmann, who found it conceptually shallow and awkwardly
staged. Martin Gottfried cited the conventional, unilluminating, “unexceptionable”
qualities of the mounting, but Harold Clurman simply rejected the revival as
inadequately interpreted, its carefully made points “thoroughly false.” He
believed Bloom’s Hedda was a mistakenly conceived “icy bitch,” rather than a
woman of refinement and sensibility whose neuroses stem from her social
circumstances.
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| Donald Madden, Claire Bloom. |
Bloom herself announced that, as a result of her research,
she concluded that Hedda was “terribly frigid—and basically homosexual.” This
outlook led to a characterization that froze the critics by its unpleasantness.
Jack Kroll, for example, thought her “chilly, prim and pallid.” But to Barnes,
Bloom outshone such recent Heddas as Irene Worth and Maggie Smith. “It is a
performance of matchless control and courage,” he announced.
Others in the cast were Kate Wilkinson as Aunt Julia, Eda Reiss Merin as Berte, Roy Shulman as George Tesman, Patricia Elliott as Mrs. Elvsted, and Robert Gerringer as Judge Brack. Elliott’s Mrs. Elvsted was for most the
outstanding performance, while Donald Madden’s Eiler Lovborg received laudatory
notices as well. Bloom nonetheless earned both an Outer Critics Circle Award
and a Drama Desk Award.
Note: John Willis's Theatre World 1970-1971 cast listing gives Diane Kagan as the Mrs. Elvsted but this appears to be a mistake.
