Hedda Gabler: Theatre Royal Bath (Oxford Playhouse)

Surprisingly, there was an awful lot of laughter from the audience for this production. Admittedly, most of that humour stems from the either the self-obsession or self-delusion of the characters. Tesman is slightly pompous and single-minded to a fault. While essentially harmless, he's also totally boring as a spouse - at least as far as Hedda's concerned - and yet he's clearly devoted to both her and the elderly aunts who raised him. Aunt Juliana (who clearly drives Hedda to complete distraction) idolises her nephew, tirelessly nurses her ailing sister and tries to be nice to Hedda, yet has a tendency to both witter and pry. Decent people yes, but Hedda doesn't belong in their world and to be honest doesn't make much effort. We can tell it's the sort of milieu that she will find mind-numbingly stultefying and yet it's difficult to totally sympathise with her because her petulance, jealousy and lack of empathy only destroy. She pushes Loevborg towards self-destruction apparently for her own satisfaction and because he seemingly found some peace working alongside Mrs Elvstad, but his weakness deprives his death of any "beauty". Presumably she would consider her own suicide to be such an act though it feels more like desperation to escape a trap of her own making.