Cate Blanchett Gets Restless as Hedda Gabler at Brooklyn Academy of Music March 1

By Robert Simonson
March 1, 2006

Film actress Cate Blanchett will play Ibsen's moody society wife, Hedda Gabler, in a Sydney Theatre Company production to be presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), beginning March 1.

STC artistic director Robyn Nevin directs the Oscar-nominated star of "Elizabeth," "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "The Aviator" (she won for the last). Hedda Gabler will open on March 1 for a four-week run of 28 performances in the 875-seat BAM Harvey Theatre.

Andrew Upton wrote the new adaptation. Joining Blanchett will be Annie Byron, Justine Clarke, Julie Hamilton, Hugo Weaving (of "The Matrix" and "Lord of the Rings," playing Judge Brack), Anthony Weigh and Aden Young.

Set are designed by Fiona Crombie, costumes by Kristian Fredrikson, lighting by Nick Schlieper, and the original music is composed by Alan John.

Hedda Gabler opened in Sydney at STC's Wharf 1 theatre on July 27, 2004. It sold out its nine-week stay.

Blanchett has occasionally graced the stage. She starred in a West End revival of David Hare's Plenty in 1999.

Hedda Gabler has become the Ibsen play of the moment, enjoying, in recent years, high profile Broadway revivals (with Kate Burton as Hedda), and praised, avant-garde Off-Broadway treatments (at New York Theatre Workshop, with Elizabeth Marvel), as well as off-kilter, original riffs on the text such as Jeff Whitty's The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler and the recently closed Hedda-with-robots oddity, Heddatron.