Working the Score of a Performance Sonata: Hedda Gabler (2005-2007)

Abstract

This article describes the process of staging Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler in Mexico in the past decade, which took more than two years. Within this experience it was possible to notice the analogy between the work that the actor develops with a theatrical script and, on the other hand, the recognition procedures that a musician activates before a score. Specifically, it tries to describe the complex trajectory that an actor faces: from a first revision of the dramatic text to the public presentation before the spectators. This paper emphasizes the careful handling of the various translations of the work that the director carried out in the review of each of the scenes to distinguish modifications, shortcomings, and certainties that could arise during the exploration of actions, in the deployment of the enormous Ibsen’s score. In the account of this staging, especial attention is given to how a group of actors, when staging a text of these characteristics, requires attention to the characters, the structure of the drama, and the organization of actions with an amazing precision, like the putting in agreement of musicians who interpret a sonata.