IF ever there were an ill-matched pair then the newly-married Hedda Gabler and George Tesman are it.

Hedda is intelligent, self-absorbed and dangerously bored while Georgie, a brilliant scholar, is a fool.

Hedda's desire for stability and a caring husband soon wears thin, and to cope with her sense of entrapment, she treats life as a game and dreams of influencing a man’s destiny.

Kirsty Bushell, playing Hedda, manages the complex and conflicting emotions beautifully, being all of the following: cruel, manipulative, patient, remorseful and given to act on wild impulses.

While being intensely dislikeable, you can’t help empathising with her at times over such an insufferable life, albeit caused by her own doing.

Often referred to as the female Hamlet, the role is seen as one of the greatest for any actress, with Maggie Smith and Cate Blanchett having performed it in the past.

And the Henrik Ibsen play, first staged in Munich in 1891, is truly Shakespearean in its tragic nature as Hedda, unseen by the daft Georgie (Ben Caplan), descends into deep despair.

A dark and powerful performance, it is played out on a Norwegian stage of delicate furnishings and transparent walls.

The Salisbury Playhouse production is directed by Gareth Machin and runs until April 2.

Elizabeth Kemble