Hedda

Not only is this one of the best productions of Ibsen's arguably best play but it is in my opinion one of Glenda Jackson's greatest performances. The set is traditional, and that means a cluttered, claustrophobic room divided by a curtain where the final tragic action takes place. It starts also quite conventionally with just a little too much of a whiff of the ' theatre ' but then Patrick Stewart and Glenda Jackson take control, and her repressed love for the writer Stewart plays pushes the play over the edge into madness. Jackson moves slowly into that destructive and vengeful impulse that she has so far kept in rein, and the inevitable decline begins. Her acting is so precise and precisely unhinged that I could not imagine another actor achieving such heights and depths again in the role. Quite simply she is the greatest Hedda Gabler I have ever seen, and I cannot imagine another actor acting quite so perilously. Timothy West is perfect in his role of Judge Brack, and it is he who has the last terrifying words. I must add that this film is hard to find and that saddens me. It should be out there for all to see. .