This adaptation is set in 1958 - the midpoint between the original year of the play and present day, and a time when the brilliance and sensuality of women became stunted by suburban conformity. Inspired by seminal period works such as Mad Men, and the novels of Patricia Highsmith and John Cheever, we’re leaving the corsets and wool overcoats behind, and instead setting this production in a toxic, sunbleached, New York City suburb. Deviating from Ibsen’s reputation as one of the fathers of realism, this production will be dreamy-steamy, leaning into the surreal and sensual. Hedda's character is transformed from a figure of grim solitude into a fiery, manic presence that masks a deeper unease. This staging plays off themes of stolen youth, stolen valor, status and self, and a deep, capitalistic, existential hunger for more at all costs.