Two-time Olivier Award-winner Sheridan Smith returns to the London stage to play the title role in Brian Friel’s adaptation of Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen’s masterpiece about the conflicting requirements of society and the individual.

Directed by Anna Mackmin, Ibsen’s seminal work tells the story of a general’s daughter who marries a man she despises. Driven by fear and loathing, Hedda’s despair goads her independent spirit to a rage expressed in the wilful contamination of life around her, leading to disaster for her and all those beguiled by her.

First performed in 1891, Hedda Gabler explores the title character’s corrosive descent into the treacherous void between expectation and reality.

Well known for her acclaimed performance as Elle Woods in Legally Blonde The Musical, Smith is joined in the production by The Archers’ Buffy Davis, star of the Donmar Warehouse’s Dimetos Anne Reid, Betty Blue Eyes’ Adrian Scarborough and Fenella Woolgar, who appeared in Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing, which was also directed by Mackmin.