GAZE: Hedda (+ Pre-Feature Short)

CLUB 18+115 min

FEATURE:

HEDDA Dir. Jen Heyes UK, 2022, 58m

‘David Hoyle gives us a beguiling, deadpan Hedda, sometimes through song, in a pungent and stylishly captured performance.”

– The Guardian

Irish premiere. Hedda is beautiful, aristocratic, and intelligent, loaded with social grace and a steely, clear, dispassionate charisma. Life really isn’t good enough for Hedda. Like any of us, in life there are moments when we feel that this frustrating business of existence — as lived on our darkest days — really isn’t good enough for us either... Set in a Lynchian world of dream imagery, drama, bespoke sound design, music and chanteuse style singing; the iconic avant-garde performer David Hoyle stars as Hedda in this one-person, cinematic/theatrical reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, created and directed by Jen Heyes, with original composition by Tom Parkinson. HEDDA (After Ibsen) moves past the obvious to create a darkly surreal show for everyone that doesn’t reduce it to our binary

traditions.

Shot on location at Soho Theatre, yet cinematically ambitious, HEDDA (After Ibsen) is a story of many faces – the absolute power of manipulation, influence, the control of obsession and dark psychological unrest. This is a contemporary unpacking of Ibsen’s original text from inside the hinterland of the artist’s imagination. Heyes and Hoyle’s reimagined Hedda is both musical and darkly surreal, moving us far beyond the traditional binary. As Ibsen himself said: ‘Hedda is first and foremost a human being.’

David Hoyle and Jen Heyes will be in conversation following the screening.

PRE-FEATURE SHORT:

Private View Dir. Sarah Myland / UK / 2023 / 17m

Two British artists: the lesbian portrait painter Sadie Lee and the non-binary writer Libro Levi Bridgeman happen to have been born on the same day. They meet to collaborate on a portrait of Libro and discuss their lives from the 1980s onwards. Now, after 3 years, Sadie is ready to uncover the painting. This short documentary follows Sadie and Libro's friendship and the surprising reveal.