Lily Allen will star as the enigmatic and destructive Hedda Gabler, one of theatre’s most irresistible heroines, in HEDDA, a thrilling new version of Henrik Ibsen’s great masterpiece written and directed by Matthew Dunster, which will run at Theatre Royal Bath’s Ustinov Studio from Friday 25 July to Saturday 23 August 2025.
Further cast and creative team are to be announced.
Returning from her honeymoon and already bored with her marriage, Hedda finds herself shattered by a destructive attraction to a seemingly brilliant but dissolute writer and blackmailed by an older predatory man. Suffocated and betrayed by these violent forces, there is only one choice left to her….
Lily Allen says: “I am absolutely thrilled to be given the chance of playing Hedda Gabler. I adore working with Matthew Dunster and can’t wait to explore this piece with him. I’m very excited to bring her to Bath next summer, in the intimacy of the Ustinov Studio, it’s going to be great.”
This announcement reinforces the Ustinov’s reputation as the country’s leading studio space. This Spring two Ustinov productions will play simultaneously in the West End – Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal at the Old Vic and A View from the Bridge starring Dominic West at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Pinter’s The Lover and The Collection starring David Morrissey and Mathew Horne has just finished an acclaimed sell out run in the Ustinov and Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea starring Tamsin Greig and Oliver Chris is currently in preview. Later in the year Richard Jones – director of Machinal – will return to the Ustinov to direct Pinter’s The Birthday Party starring Jane Horrocks.
Tickets go on sale to Theatre Royal Bath Priority Bookers at 10am on Saturday 4 May 2024. For more information, visit theatreroyal.org.uk/events/hedda/
