Hedda Gabler a play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Johan Ibsen (1828 – 1906) centers on the protagonist, Hedda, whose misdirected energy is both attractive and destructive. Beautiful, intelligent and refined, Hedda is also unable to find any creative outlet for her energies. Married to the dull, pedantic Jorgen Tesman whom she will not leave for fear of scandal, she envies the fulfillment that her one-time admirer, Lovborg, and Thea, whom she used to bully in school, have found together. Hedda consequently deliberately destroys Thea’s happiness and Lovborg’s precarious mental balance. When a family friend, Judge Brack, attempts to blackmail her into becoming his mistress, Hedda shoots herself.
Ibsen himself had said about Hedda Gabler: "I have not really tried to deal with so-called problems. My main purpose has been to describe human beings, human moods and human fates on the basis of certain conditions and views prevalent in society". Perhaps it is the focus on characters that makes this play feel remarkably modern more than a century after it was written. Hedda Gabler is one of Ibsen's most performed plays, and the title role is one of the most challenging and rewarding for any actress.

1. "Then what in the heaven's name would you have me do with myself?"
2. "Those impulses come over me all of a sudden, and I can not resist them."