The high-profile Los Angeles production of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler -- with an adaptation by contemporary dramatist Jon Robin Baitz and starring Annette Bening in the title role, may extend past its set closing date of April 18.

"It's a possibility," said a spokesman (March 29) at the Geffen Playhouse, where the play began performances March 14. "We'll know at the end of the week."

Bening hasn't done a play since 1988's Spoils of War at NY's Second Stage Theatre. She received a Clarence Derwent Award and a Tony nomination for her role in Tina Howe's Coastal Disturbances, which played at the Second Stage in 1986 and then moved to Broadway. Previously, she'd been a company member at SF's American Conservatory Theatre, the Denver Center, and numerous Shakespeare Festivals. (Bening's Coastal Disturbances Playbill bio notes that during her training years, she'd played many famous women's roles in theatre: Juliet, Lady Macbeth and Eliza Doolittle.)

Bening's film roles include "Mars Attacks!," "The American President," "Bugsy," "Regarding Henry," Ian McKellen's "Richard III" (as Elizabeth) and an Oscar-nominated turn in "The Grifters."

Baitz, new to the adaptation game, is known for his original plays, such as The Substance of Fire, A Fair Country, The Film Society and The End of the Day. Dan Sullivan, who has staged several Baitz plays, will directs. Henrik Ibsen's 1890 drama tells of a woman who marries well but boringly and secretly longs for troubled but passionate poet, Eilert Lovborg. When she's faced with blackmail, not to mention the dashing of her idealistic view of Lovborg, she turns to her father's pistol for comfort.

Bening has also been talks with playwright George Furth to appear in his new comedy, Sex, Sex, Sex, Sex, Sex, Sex, Sex, though no time frame or further details are yet available on that show.

Call (310) 208-5454 for further details on the Geffen Playhouse season.

-- By Robert Simonson