Hedda

Multi award-winning star of stage, screen and music LILY ALLEN will star as the enigmatic and destructive Hedda Gabler, one of theatre’s most irresistible heroines, in a thrilling new version of Ibsen’s masterpiece which will open at the Ustinov Studio from Friday 25 July 2025.

A re-imagining of Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler

Adapted and directed by Matthew Dunster

Returning from her honeymoon and already bored with her marriage, Hedda finds herself shattered by a destructive attraction to a seemingly brilliant but dissolute writer and blackmailed by an older predatory man. Suffocated and betrayed by these violent forces, there is only one choice left to her….

Lily Allen has established herself as one of our most popular actresses and performers. Her recent appearance in the stage phenomenon 2:22 A Ghost Story earned her an Oliver Award nomination and the Whatsonstage Award for Best Actress, before starring in the highly-acclaimed The Pillowman. On screen she has portrayed the iconic Elizabeth Taylor in How To Build A Girl and her music career has seen her win more than 30 music awards, including Grammys, Ivor Novello and BRIT awards, and a succession of number one hit singles and albums.

The creative team will be led by sought-after director and writer Matthew Dunster. A former Associate Director of Shakespeare’s Globe and the Young Vic, he has been nominated for four Olivier Awards and his Broadway production of Hangmen was nominated for five Tony Awards. His West End productions include Hangmen, True West, Shirley Valentine and The Pillowman. His production of 2:22 A Ghost Story, where he began his working relationship with Lily Allen, broke records in the West End and went on to achieve international acclaim. In January 2025 he will direct the Conor McPherson’s highly anticipated stage adaptation of The Hunger Games.