Multi Olivier Award winner Ruth Wilson will take on one of the stage’s greatest roles this December as she gets set to play the explosive Hedda Gabler in Ivo Van Hove’s much anticipated production at the National Theatre.
A star on both sides of the Atlantic thanks to hit shows Luther and HBO’s The Affair, in which she stars opposite Idris Elba and Dominic West respectively, Wilson will take on the iconic role following Olivier Award-winning leading appearances in the Donmar Warehouse’s Anna Christie and A Streetcar Named Desire.
Excitement for Wilson’s appearance in Christopher Hampton’s translation of Henrik Ibsen’s classic will only add to the existing anticipation surrounding the production as theatre fans get ready for another Van Hove hit following London hits including the hugely successful Mark Strong-led A View From The Bridge.
The innovative Olivier Award-winning director’s take on Hedda Gabler has already been seen in New York and Amsterdam, where he was acclaimed for his trademark radical interpretation of a classic text.
Writing about the production when it was first seen in New York in 2004, The New York Times said: “Mr Van Hove’s remarkable Hedda Gabler, which also includes such peculiarities as a can of tomato juice used as a weapon of mass humiliation, and a finale staged almost entirely in darkness, does not necessarily illuminate the play as a dramatic text. That can be left to traditionalists. Mr Van Hove’s sights are set considerably higher: he is an artist seeking, as Ibsen once did, to illuminate the world around him.”
According to the Daily Mail, Hedda Gabler’s traditional 19th century setting will be replaced with a contemporary set and costumes, which will be designed by Van Hove’s long-time collaborator Jan Versweyveld.
Wilson joins an incredible line-up of actors set to appear at the National Theatre in the coming months including Helen McCrory, who leads June’s The Deep Blue Sea, Andrew Garfield in Angels In America, Tamsin Greig in Twelfth Night and Ralph Fiennes in Antony And Cleopatra.