Queensland Theatre’s new production Hedda, which transports Henrik Ibsen’s classic play to “a monstrous Gold Coast mansion with white leather couches, blingy chandeliers and endless rounds of Aperol Spritz”, began two years ago when the company’s then Associate Artistic Director Paige Rattray threw an idea into the ring.

“I was interested in looking at the ‘great’ female roles in the canon and re-imagining the women not as tragic victims of circumstance but people with agency, drive and winning at what they do. I asked [AD] Sam Strong what he thought about Melissa Bubnic re-imagining Hedda Gabler with Danielle Cormack as Hedda and he was all for it,” says Rattray.

Danielle Cormack stars in Queensland Theatre’s Hedda. Photo © Jonno Searle

“Melissa re-read the play and suggested moving away from the upper middle-class setting and shifting it to a contemporary Gold Coast imaging, centred around a drug syndicate. We were like ‘YES! YES! YES!”

Bubnic’s adaptation, directed by Rattray (who is now Associate Director at Sydney Theatre Company) opens this month starring Cormack. Audiences can expect to see something familiar to Ibsen’s classic yet also very...