“[Sarah] Topham speaks volumes with just a raised brow or a narrowed eye in a finely detailed performance that foregrounds Hedda’s intelligence. Gordon S Miller’s Tesman is more ruddy than fusty, even doing a cartwheel and a jig at one point…

A fiercely focused production that reveals just how well [Patrick] Marber has distilled Ibsen’s claustrophobic drama and captured the play’s black comedy.”
[Chris Wiegand’s trip was provided by the festival]

“This is a play where you don’t want to take your eyes off the actors: you feel the need to watch their reactions at all times. For most of the nearly two-hour performance, you are on the edge of your seat, wondering what will happen next. Then when the appalling, sudden ending arrives, you are left with much food for thought.”

“The production’s rendering of Brack, Tesman, and Hedda’s “triangular association,” to use the judge’s words, is charged.

When Brack is in the room, Hedda becomes uninterested in Tesman, often mocking him for the purpose of impressing their third. At one point, Brack and Hedda sit close to one another on the fainting couch, kicking their legs and hitting each other like schoolchildren as they laugh at the well-meaning scholar. It’s the intelligence of Topham’s performance that the audience, too, feels like giggling (her Hedda is dangerously funny). And McCamus being a couple decades older than Topham makes their characters’ relationship — including Brack’s primary objective, to have power over Hedda — all the more terrifying.”

“The primary reason to see the Stratford production are the magnificent portrayals of Hedda and Judge Brack by Sara Topham and Tom McCamus…

What makes Hedda like Hamlet is that she is also conscious of the failure of her own projects. As she says, “Everything I touch turns to ashes”. Topham is able to convey all the level of Hedda’s knowledge and crippling self-awareness. For the first time I perceived the parallel between Nora of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Hedda. Nora finally slams the door on a world not of making. Hedda makes a final exit from a world that her own actions have made uninhabitable.”

“Sara Topham masterfully portrays all facets of this controversial and complex character. Her Hedda is captivating….

Every performer in this small cast is excellent…

Brad Hodder is heartbreaking as the brilliant but flawed Lovborg; Gordon S. Miller as the clueless but kind Tesman is as endearing to the audience as he is repulsive to his wife; Joella Crichton simultaneously infuses a timidness and a passion to Mrs. Elvsted; and Tom McCamus is both charming and scary as the well-connected Brack. Kim Horsman brings moments of levity as the maid Bertha; and Bola Aiyeoala brings a quiet dignity to Tesman’s Aunt Juliana – a character who could have viewed the world in a similar way as Hedda, but has instead found ways to make it just a little bit better for herself and the people around her.”

“Atkinson’s production is simple and sparse, allowing Topham to gleam at its centre in a performance that promises to be one of the strongest of this year’s Festival…

The Stratford Festival’s production of Hedda Gabler is brutal and bold, a strong offering against crowd-pleasers like Something Rotten! and Twelfth Night. It’s certainly not a toe-tapper — Hedda is twisty and fierce, and deeply unlikeable for about 90 per cent of the play — but it’s all but certain that Topham’s tour de force performance will be the talk of the town this summer.”