Ibsen's 'Hedda' Regains Power to Shock

Manipulative Star Keeps Stage Pulsating in 19th-Century Psychological Drama

Let's get this out of the way right here: Karen Jadlos Shotts's starring performance in "Hedda Gabler" at Elden Street Players is as exciting, absorbing and as delicious to experience as anything you will see in live theater. Shotts has the audience in the palm of her hand every second she is onstage, which is just about the entire play, turning this tired old drama into a thrilling horror story.

I was not joyful that the accomplished Herndon troupe had Henrik Ibsen's 1890 potboiler on the schedule. This turgid soap opera has bored me in various productions over the years, with its overwrought characters and improbable situations. But critics are not to forget that it was considered a daring rejection of Victorian conformity in its day, a once-edgy foray into psychosexual confrontation. Ibsen, after all, is a father of modern, realistic theater.

But this ain't 1890, and to borrow from Cole Porter, a glimpse of stocking is no longer shocking. Ibsen's story now seems contrived and even silly.

Despite that, "Hedda Gabler" is hot again, thanks to the recent successful Broadway production starring Hollywood's very bankable Cate Blanchett. Now there is a whole new wave of Heddas gabbing away in theaters. (Arlington's Washington Shakespeare Company opens the play next week.) But it is doubtful any of them is as captivating as Shotts's.

Hedda is beautiful and sharply intelligent but manipulative and psychologically damaged, a woman who is languishing in a male-dominated world. She is implausibly married to George (Ted Culler), an ineffectual intellectual who seems surprised to have recently landed her. A past love, the brilliant historian Eilert (Nader Tavangar), suddenly reemerges, and the games begin. Each man is on the verge of career success and social accomplishment, but Hedda is soon moving them and everyone else who enters her domain about like pieces on a chessboard.

Even that is not enough for her; she needs attention and achievement of her own. Frustration drives her to fateful actions, and a predictable ending.

As written, "Hedda Gabler" is cold. As played here by Shotts, she is, if you'll pardon the expression, hot. Pent-up passions are driving this Hedda to insanity, and that heat is just barely contained beneath the surface of her placid expressions. You see it in the smoldering eyes, the fingers that cruelly tear the petals off a beautiful flower or rat-a-tat impatiently on a window pane.

Even when teasing, she radiates intensity. When Hedda steals a moment alone with her erstwhile lover, ardor and obsession are heavy in the air as the two merely touch hands. Shotts operates on two levels simultaneously, exuding fervor and strength while never letting us forget that this is a woman whose psyche is rapidly disintegrating.

Directed by David Fallen, the entire cast supports the leading lady by precisely building on layers of tension. Tavangar vibrantly portrays the brooding genius Eilert. It's a smallish role, but Tavangar makes it memorably dimensional.

Al Fetske takes a risk with the role of Judge Brack, the spider who waits for Hedda to fall into his web. Fetske is avuncular, only occasionally allowing Brack's cunning nature to reveal itself in the precision of his words or icy smile.

He cloaks evil in reasonableness, which pays late dividends. Ted Culler's George is appropriately guileless, almost childlike, while Carla Scopeletis, Laura Russell and Rosemary Hartman adeptly play smaller roles.

An advantage of the idiosyncratic layout of the Industrial Strength Theatre is that you can be very close to the actors, or at least never that far away. That enhances the spell cast by Shotts; you can look into her eyes, or see the sinews in her hands as she twists them together. The atmosphere she creates positively vibrates, and it is a privilege to experience it.

"Hedda Gabler" continues through Feb. 16, performed by Elden Street Players at Industrial Strength Theater, 269 Sunset Park Dr., Herndon. Showtime is 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays with performances scheduled at 7 p.m. Feb. 10 and 8 p.m. Feb. 14. For reservations, call 703-481-5930. For information, visithttp://www.eldenstreetplayers.org.