Silhouettes and Souvenirs
By 1992, three years after the production of Little Stumps and Real Conversations, Linda Mussmann and Claudia Bruce still could not shake the character of “Clover”. This time, our protagonist acts as a medium through whom Mussmann translates her version of Henrik Ibsen's classic play, Hedda Gabler (1890).
It presents an impressionistic reflection on two women, Clover and Hedda, who lived at a time when a woman’s destiny was prescribed by a severe, patriarchal society. Mussmann and Bruce examine the way destiny has been manipulated by those in power, and how the actions of some characters, fictional and non-fictional, have challenged and resisted those efforts.
Hedda Gabler (1890) was one in a series of studies in which Ibsen concentrated on a particular view of women in Victorian society. One of the kings of social realism and a defender of women's rights, Ibsen tells the story of a woman unable to meet the strict rules imposed on her by Victorian society. Through her demands and her inability to act on her own behalf in society, Hedda becomes dependent on the men who surround her. Her independent spirit rebels in the only way left open to her and she eventually commits suicide with her father's pistol.
In the early 1970's, Mussmann directed three of Ibsen's plays - The Wild Duck, Ghosts and Hedda Gabler. This version of Hedda is her own adaptation which focuses on the elements of the play - the journey, the house, the pregnancy and the lack of choice.
Instead of telling the whole of Ibsen's story, she has taken crucial parts of the play and magnified them to match the way she imagines that Hedda hears them - as bonds growing ever tighter, restricting her and leaving her with no choices.
Ray Mark Rinaldi, The Time Union:
“It is a different kind of play in a different setting. The work is presented in the sitting room of a mid-1800s mansion on downtown Allen Street, right out of the period. The tiny space seats just 30 people and each performance is followed by a Victorian tea provided by the nearby Charleston Restaurant…
The makeshift theater is actually the first floor of the home of restaurant owners Carole Clark and John Mankowski, who have vacated part of their space for the production. The natural setting has been adapted with the addition of the video and sound equipment -The production combines live stage acting and four video monitors.
Linda Mussmann:
“There are two marble fireplaces. The place is still in pretty good shape. You get a real feel for the time period. All these electronics give it a real feeling for past, present and future.”
David Higgs, The Register Star:
“The use of television screens and a live performer, which worked jointly to illustrate the maddening scenario of being an enlightened woman trapped in a Victorian hell, is amazing to watch.
The hypnotic effects produced by sound-around voices and sense-around shadows, images, and a moving (and mobile) narrator Bruce, were enthralling.
Bruce, who ambled from room to room in the midst of flash-shooting photos with a 35mm camera, permeated the work with her dual appearances as both a live actor and as an image on television. Both encapsulated on a small screen and unfettered on stage, she worked her spell on the select audience with the effect of creating a new trance-like atmosphere.
This look at the confining aspects of the 19th century and turn-of-the-century life illustrates the potential reasons for the suicides of both women, who felt they could not succeed in a world on domineering, possessive men who shaped their destinies with familiar duties and childbirth.”
Bruce was the sole live performer; the rest of the cast appeared only in pre-recorded segments on televisions via VHS or over four loudspeakers via audio cassette. Bruce triggered and manipulated these tapes while delivering lines from her podium, which doubled as a control center consisting of three tape decks, three VCRs, and a mixing board. Additionally, a fourth television was connected to a closed circuit camera, displaying a live closeup of Bruce as Clover/Hedda.
