Christopher Shinn Hoping To Energize "Hedda Gabler" At NY's Roundabout

The New York Times:

"Christopher Shinn saw his first Ibsen play when he was 15 and was instantly hooked. 'Sam Waterston and Cynthia Nixon did ‘The Master Builder’ in Hartford,' Mr. Shinn, now 32 and an accomplished playwright himself, recalled recently. He found the play both shocking and thrilling, he said. 'I remember feeling like I was in the presence of something very dark and very powerful and profound.'

"Now, after years of studying Ibsen’s plays and teaching them to his playwriting students at the New School, Mr. Shinn is getting a chance to commune even more closely with his literary hero. He has adapted one of Ibsen’s most popular works, 'Hedda Gabler,' for a new production by the Roundabout Theater Company that begins previews on Tuesday. The production, which stars Mary-Louise Parker, is being directed by Ian Rickson, who also directed the recent Broadway production of 'The Seagull.'

"Adapting a play is not quite the same as doing a new translation, since the writer doing an adaptation may not know the language of the original and may also take more liberties than a typical translator in updating the language for contemporary audiences. In Mr. Shinn’s case, since he does not know Norwegian, he worked from a literal translation of Ibsen’s script and also studied around 20 other adaptations."

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