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11/06/2009Car-crash theatre

Car-crash theatre Henrik Ibsen’s famous proto-feminist, Hedda Gabler, is playing the Berlin stage one last time this summer. Expatica columnist Jacinta Nandi-Pietschmann gets the inside scoop.

My little brother went up to London with his A-Level class recently, to see a play for the first time.  Well, it wasn’t exactly his first time in the theatre – we’re not total plebs – but it was his first time in a Proper Theatre, and his first time at a West End show.

“What was it like?” I asked him, on the phone.

“It was brilliant!”  He gushed enthusiastically.  “It was almost as good as a film!”

The truth is, of course, that “almost as good as a film” is the highest praise a teenager from the suburbs could ever give a play.

But seriously, kids: Hedda Gabler at the Schaubühne really is almost as good as a film.  



Sexy, witty, modern, entertaining – even your little brother will think so, although he might complain, initially, about sitting down for over two hours without a break.  But Hedda Gabler will win him over in no time. The set’s amazing – I don’t know why but I love fake rain, I think it’s really snazzy – the music’s rousing and upbeat, the costumes are great… the whole experience is immensely enjoyable.  

And, importantly: the language is clear and easy to understand.  It’s no more difficult to follow, simply in terms of vocabulary and speed of speech, than watching an episode Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten.  And, luckily, for those expats whose German levels haven’t quite reached the daily soap standard, there are even sur-titles to help you along the way – although, admittedly, you might find yourself having to suppress a couple of untimely sniggers, as some of the translation does seem to have been done by a Praktikantin on Leo.

Hedda Gabler ©Arno Declair Katharina Schüttler, Annedore BauerOkay, so what’s the plot?  Well, Hedda, played by Katharina Schüttler, deliciously skinny, delightfully beautiful and almost painfully perfect, is unhappily married to an Academic Loser, Tesman.  Her feelings towards him range from indifference to total contempt.   And then, suddenly, her ex, the Alchoholic-Turned-Successful-Writer Eilert Løvberg is back in town, having written and published a good book – and we soon learn he has another astoundingly excellent one stashed on his laptop. 

And he hasn’t backed up his files.  Uh-oh.  Hedda schemes – Løvberg crashes – and oh boy, he crashes well.  Kay Bartholomäus Schulze provides us with a human car-crash more profoundly watchable than Amy Winehouse, Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan overdosing in a taxi.  And then our Hedda is left in the stickiest of sticky situations.  No amount of scheming can get her out now.

Hedda Gabler is a brilliant play.  There’s lots of pop music, film clips, wicked scheming and plenty of blood.  It’s the kind of play that could convert little brothers to theatre.

June 13 at 8pm, with English surtitles

SCHAUBÜHNE AM LEHNINER PLATZ
Kurfürstendamm 153
10709-Berlin
U-Bhf U7 Adenauerplatz
Tickets: 030 89 00 23
 
Jacinta Nandi-Pietschmann/Expatica


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