"Heddatron" mini-review

[B. Tribe]

Heddatron is playing at the SVT BIG ASSSSS Stage for a couple more days. I saw it last night and it was pretty good. As a director/actor I, of course, would have done things differently. The stage looked awesome and the play itself was fairly intriguing. The acting wasn't uniformly good, unfortunately. I'd put that at the feet of the director rather than the actors. One character in particular is too much of a caricature; in the end he feels faker than the robots.

Oh, yeah, there are robots. They play revolves around a mother, Jane, being abducted by robots and taken to a rain forest where she is forced to play the role of Hedda in "Hedda Gabler". She sits in shadow , center stage, for most of the show, while on one side we see her family exploiting her kidnapping and on the other, Henrik Ibsen deals with a rude wife, a horny maid, and a desperado-clad August Strindberg. The play is pretty goofy for the most part. The actor who plays Jane (Amy Downing) has the hardest role as the dramatic center of an otherwise absurdly comical world.

After the play reaches a climax of ridiculousness (won't ruin it for you, but there's an 80's song and a smoke machine involved) it dives into heavier material. Once the actual, powerful dialogue of "Hedda Gabler" is invoked the door to crazytown closes. The most telling line in the play goes something like "If a robot realizes it's a robot, is it still a robot?"

It's playing until Sunday, 3/5. Check it out if ya gonna.

[shando]

Nice review. If you are thinking of the performance I am as well, I concur with your assessment that HE was way faker than the robots. Super mannered and I think a wrong note for an otherwise solid production.