Amanda Gaughan: Hedda Gabler

In her first week of rehearsals directing Hedda Gabler, Amanda Gaughan, associate artist with the Lyceum, took time out for her busy schedule to sit down with The Skinny and talk about her upcoming production. “We’ve been bouncing about lots of ideas and dissecting the play, and we’ve very quickly realised that every line has a relevance. Once the ball starts rolling the momentum just keeps going. There’s no fluffiness around the language or any time for any of the characters to have a breather. It’s a bit relentless, so we’ve just been dissecting that and getting to know one another. I think it’s really important to build a shared language so we’re all on the same page as a company. 

Gaughan first read the play in 2008 as part of her MA in theatre directing at the RCS. Looking at lots of different translations of the text, she found herself particularly drawn to Richard Eyre’s 2005 version, which is the basis for this production. “I feel the language is very contemporary and accessible to the ear and hopefully therefore to our audience," she says. It is not just the language of the play that Gaughan wants to be accessible, however. “I’m interested in real characters and real relationships, and the events that enable them to carry out certain actions. I found these characters and these relationships to be really relatable, even though it’s happening in 1890. When I became an associate at the Lyceum last year and we started having discussions about what play I wanted to do, it was either Hedda Gabler or Streetcar, and we went with Hedda. I find in a lot of my work I’m interested in strong women getting put through the ringer. I love seeing strong female roles on stage.”

Henrik Ibsen was among the first playwrights to give agency to strong female characters and allow them to be the centre of his plays. Is that something Gaughan finds directly referential to theatre now? 

“Ibsen wasn’t scared to put real human emotions and relationships on stage and hold a mirror up to society. That’s why he never neglected women, because woman are real people and he could see how they were being pressed at times. He wanted to put them on stage and I thank him for that. When Hedda was first performed, what Ibsen did was pave the way for people to be brave. Without him presenting realism, but heightening it and giving it hidden depths, perhaps we wouldn’t be as bold with our storytelling now. He was someone that dared to do that and we have brilliant playwrights who dare to that now. It’s the playwrights who are daring that are so exciting”

Gaughan recently worked with NTS’s James Plays, and names Rona Munro among these exciting playwrights. “She writes strong women, she’s like Ibsen. The female characters were so strong in all three plays. They really drove the men, put them into action and were daring as well.” Of her experience, Gaughan says: “You learn on every single experience and every single job, and hopefully because I’ve learned from every past experience that will help with the direction of this play. I will make mistakes and learn from those mistakes, as you do with every process, but that’s what’s exciting.”

With such a focus on the daring, and on strong female characters, Gaughan’s Hedda Gabler looks likely to make a strong statement while entertaining audiences at the same time. It begins its run on 20 March at The Lycuem, through to 11 April.