MASP

Clara Carvalho directs Hedda Gabler, bringing Ibsen’s modernity to its premiere at the MASP Auditorium.
The tragicomedy was written in 1890 and features one of the author’s most enigmatic and disconcerting female characters. Hedda embodies the profound existential malaise of women at the end of the 19th century and their search for a place within the oppressive patriarchal society. The production will feature a live soundtrack by Greg Slivar and is Clara Carvalho’s third foray into Ibsen on stage, the first as a director.

Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) created a remarkable gallery of female characters who expressed the profound malaise and oppression of women in the society of his time. Hedda Gabler absorbs all this atmosphere and premieres on June 28, Friday, at 8 pm, at the MASP Auditorium. The play was conceived by researcher Rosalie Rahal Haddad and produced by Círculo de Atores and SM Arte Cultura.

The translation and direction are by Clara Carvalho, who won the Critics' Grand Prize from the São Paulo Association of Art Critics (APCA) for her work in 2023 as an actress, translator and director in theater. The cast includes Karen Coelho, Guilherme Gorski, Carlos de Niggro, Chris Couto, Nábia Villela, Mariana Leme and Sergio Mastropasqua.

The tragicomedy was written in 1890 and tells the story of the enigmatic, strong-willed and fascinating Hedda Gabler, who, upon returning from her honeymoon, discovers that she cannot bear to live what she considers a mediocre life with her husband, Jorge Tesman.
According to Clara, the character played by Karen Coelho is unable to discover her calling and does not have a profession that gives her any economic autonomy. Gifted with merciless sarcasm, she clumsily tries to manipulate the patriarchal game, but faced with a life devoid of any pleasure, she finds herself cornered.
“The only daughter of a military man who left her only a piano, a painting, two pistols and arrogance as an inheritance, Hedda marries a man she does not admire without love and creates a trap with no way out for herself. She is too conventional to slam the door and leave the marriage (like Nora in A Doll’s House) or accept the love triangle proposed by Judge Brack, because she considers adultery a vulgar condition; but she is also restless: she rejects her pregnancy and cannot stand married life with a man she considers mediocre”, she highlights.
The play is set in Christiania (currently Oslo, the capital of Norway) in the late 19th century, but it takes on contemporary tones through sets by Chris Aizner and costumes by Marichilene Artisevskis. The set design features a simple environment with the façade of a bourgeois house of the time, surrounded by a garden. All the actors are on stage with few stage elements. The soundtrack, by Gregory Slivar, is performed live with instruments such as piano, keyboard, cello, among others. Actress Nábia Villela even sings on stage. For the translation, an English version by William Archer and a French version by Count Prozor were used. And some notes and questions about the dramaturgy were also researched in Norwegian.
The project follows on from the productions of Mrs. Warren's Profession (2018) and The Doctor's Dilemma (2023), both by Bernard Shaw, an Irish playwright who, together with playwright and critic William Archer, published and introduced Ibsen's work in England. Rosalie Rahal Haddad, Clara Carvalho, Círculo de Atores and SM Arte Cultura maintain the partnership that was fruitful in previous productions. In these shows, one of the constants was the presence of striking female figures, a characteristic also present in the text by the Norwegian playwright.

IBSEN, MODERNITY, THE FEMALE FIGURES

This is Clara Carvalho's third foray into Ibsen on stage, the first as a director. Her previous experiences were as an actress in Espectros (2011) directed by Francisco Medeiros; and Um Inimigo do Povo (2022), by José Fernando Peixoto de Azevedo.

"Ibsen was the founder of modern drama. He was the one who established the realistic play in prose and made theater a forum for debates on controversial issues such as the status of women in society, corruption, political reforms, and euthanasia. He expanded the limits of the “well-made play” of the French tradition, breaking with clichés of melodrama and plots of simple entertainment. He considered himself more of an architect than a playwright, because his plays presented and exploded the bourgeois house of the second half of the 19th century; their titles recurrently referred to buildings: The Pillars of Society, A Doll's House, Solness, the Builder, Rosmersholm, present apparently solid buildings that are, act by act, demolished”, emphasizes the director.

Hedda Gabler is one of the author's emblematic characters. Figures such as Nora Helmer (A Doll's House), Rebeca West (Rosmersholm), Hilda Wangel (Solness the Builder), Ellida Wangel (The Lady from the Sea) and Thea Elvsted (Hedda Gabler), for example, have the courage to break free from their bonds. But, of all of them, Hedda Gabler is perhaps the most enigmatic and disconcerting.

“Hedda is trapped and embodies profound female loneliness. She is a mix of Iago, a character from Shakespeare’s Othello, in her wickedness and manipulation; and Cleopatra, because she loves beauty and spectacle and does not want a mediocre life. Sigmund Freud himself, who was a great admirer of Ibsen, was inspired by some of the playwright’s female characters, who delved into the female unconscious, to write studies on desire and frustration. That provincial Norway was one of the first countries to adopt women’s suffrage, in 1913, and would become a pioneering place in social achievements. Ibsen was dialoguing with this entire universe”, Clara concludes.

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TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Text: Henrik Ibsen
Translation and Direction: Clara Carvalho
Conceptualization: Rosalie Rahal Haddad
Assistant Directors: Mariana Muniz and Thiago Ledier
Cast: Karen Coelho, Guilherme Gorski, Carlos de Niggro, Chris Couto, Nábia Villela, Mariana Leme and Sergio Mastropasqua
Original Live Score: Gregory Slivar
Sets: Chris Aizner
Costumes: Marichilene Artisevskis
Seamstress: Judite Lima
Chambermaid: Elisa Galdino
Set Designer: Alicio Silva
Prop Production: Jorge Luiz Alves
Lighting: Nicolas Caratori
Lighting Operation: Luisa Silva
Vocal Preparation: Babaya Morais
Technical Direction and Sound Operation: Valdilho Oliveira
Photography: Ronaldo Gutierrez
Visagism: Marcos Padilha
Graphic Design: Rafael Oliveira
Production: SM Arte e Cultura
Production Direction: Selene Marinho
Production Coordination: Sergio Mastropasqua
Executive Production: André Roman/Teatro de Jardim
Stage Management: Henrique Pina
Press Office: Adriana Balsanelli and Renato Fernandes
Social Media Management: Sergio Mastropasqua, Selene Marinho and Luisa Silva
Production: Círculo de Atores

SERVICE
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Location: Masp Auditorium
Season: 6/28 to 8/25
Times: Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., Sundays at 6:00 p.m.
Age rating: 14 years and older.
Duration: 110 min.
Capacity: 344 seats
Tickets: R$80.00 (full price), R$40.00 (half price)
Tickets on the Masp-INTI website | click here

Press information:
Adriana Balsanelli
11 99245 4138
imprensa@adrianabalsanelli.com.br

Renato Fernandes
11 97286-6703
renato.fernandesgon@gmail.com