The Swedish George Eliot and inspiration for Hedda Gabler and Miss Julie
Victoria Benedictsson was reportedly the model for both Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler and Strindberg’s Miss Julie. But she is little known outside of Sweden as a dramatist in her own right. As a new production of her play The Enchantment opens at the National Theatre in August 2007, we hear about the enduring appeal of the woman who has beeen called “the George Eliot of Sweden”.
Jane Little talks to Clare Bayley, who has adapted the play for the current production, and to Professor Birgitta Holm of Uppsala University in Sweden, author of a recent study of the writer, about the life and works of Victoria Benedictsson.
The National Theatre’s production of The Enchantment runs until 1 November 2007
