The muscle of Tanika Gupta’s adaptation lies in Hedda’s newly-written secret. Ibsen’s classic is transposed to the world of filmmakers and movie stars in London, 1948, with tea dresses, pencil moustaches, and India freshly independent. A solid, forthright reimagining, Gupta’s Hedda illuminates the racism of middle-class, postwar England, where a casual slur is no more noted in conversation than a polite sneeze.
A movie star in early retirement, our white-passing, hard-hearted Hedda (Pearl Chanda) hides her dual Anglo-Indian heritage. In a period of institutionalised racism in the film industry, with the segregation of love stories onscreen, she knows the discovery of her identity will destroy her carefully curated life. Directed by Hettie Macdonald, the play’s careless characters make the consequences of such a reveal plain in the way they talk about Shona (Rina Fatania, piercing and exact), Hedda’s maid, as if she is hardly there. Not even Hedda’s hapless husband George (Joe Bannister) suspects Hedda’s true relationship with the older woman, an inspired pairing that longs for more time on stage.
This riveting way to re-see Hedda’s deliberate hardness gives her more reason to hide away from the world and lends weight to her need to be rid of the too-revealing manuscript written by Lenny, her former flame (Jake Mann, playing the tortured artist well). As the only one who knew her before she started pretending, Lenny tries to tear down Hedda’s cold facade, but she is stubborn. To everyone else, like George’s ex Alice (a puppyish Bebe Cave), she is at best indifferent, at worst downright – almost unbelievably – contemptuous.
Beyond the intrigue of Hedda’s secret and the sinister racial politics that seep through their interactions, the play struggles to build tension. The gaggle of friends, family and exes swan in and out of the unhappy couple’s new home in Chelsea (Simon Kenny’s plush-carpeted design), professing their intentions, objections and fears as readily as if describing what they’d like for lunch. The external context of this adaptation is bold and new. But the emotions behind the characters’ internal battles are often told rather than felt, their actions missing impulse, and the swiftness of their downfalls somewhat flattening their impact.
At the Orange Tree theatre until 22 November
