East L.A.’s ‘Gabler’ Treads Lightly on Heavy Material

It’s a fair bet Hedda Gabler wouldn’t have much cared for the new production of “Hedda Gabler” by East L.A. Classic Theatre.

The company, which casts primarily Latino actors in classic drama, showed daring merely by choosing this particular Ibsen play. Hedda is not a likable or easily understood heroine. But she is bold and unforgettable, a searching soul whose hatred of boredom finally proves her undoing.

While competent, director Emmett Jacobs’ version at the Arena Theatre at Cal State L.A. is neither bold nor unforgettable. It’s much too risk-averse for that. One senses a certain reverential detachment from the text, as if the creators were afraid of what they might discover if they burrowed too deeply in Hedda’s famed pistol case.

It’s a halfhearted approach to a woman who’s anything but.

*

Hedda (Maria Canals) is doomed from the start; the fascination lies in watching her seal her own fate. Ibsen stacks the dominoes perfectly: Hedda’s marriage to an incorrigibly nerdy professor, Tesman (Valente Rodriguez); the reappearance of her former flame (and Tesman’s academic rival), Eilert Lovborg (Richard Miro); and her indelicate minuet with the leering Judge Brack (Henry Darrow).

Technically, Canals has a firm grasp on the character, perhaps too firm. Hedda has an element of mystery. She says, “The only thing in this world I’m fit for [is] boring myself to death,” but she never figures out exactly why that is so. Canals, by contrast, appears to know exactly how much world-weariness and willfulness Hedda should have, and in what proportions.

Even so, Canals can be a commanding stage presence, and the scenes between her and Darrow’s amusing, thoroughly rakish Brack are the most electric by far. The performances elsewhere are not as fortunate. Rodriguez and Miro resign themselves to nonentity status. Liliana Olivares never finds the right notes as Lovborg’s pitiful mistress, Mrs. Elvsted.

Julia Zheng’s carefully appointed set--a replica of an elegant 1920s drawing room--adds a striking touch to an otherwise visually unremarkable affair.

* “Hedda Gabler,” Arena Theatre, Cal State L.A. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 2:30 p.m. Ends May 5. $15. (213) 343-4118. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes.