Spoilt bored, vicious, brave, feminist icon and small- minded fantasist - the complexity and ambiguity of Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler has fascinated directors for decades.

An aristocratic woman just home from a six-month honeymoon, Hedda is struggling to come to terms with a marriage to a man she finds crushingly dull and with a pregnancy that threatens both her body and her future.

Aware of the conventions that bind her and, out of boredom as much as anything else, she begins to indulge in spiteful games, manipulating the fates of all who enter her orbit. Eventually she goes too far, setting in motion a string of tragic events.

Tempting though it is, Helen Caton, who is directing the play for the New Venture Theatre, feels it is important not to "interpret" Hedda too much.

"I didn't want to approach her as an evil villain or as a feminist heroine," she says. "I felt that a lot of the reviews and critique I'd read about her in the past were labelling her.

"There was a feminist perception of her that was used as a bit of a mantle and this idea that she was somehow evil is a judgment and lacks seeing her as a human being. I wanted to take all that out of it and let her stand on her own."

When it was written in the late 19th century, Hedda Gabler was considered scandalous. Her behaviour did not fit with the expectations of women in that period - no one could ever approve of a woman in a relationship without love or one involved in love triangle - and in challenging the morals of the day, Ibsen was also seen as immoral and outrageous.

It is now one of his most frequently performed works, with the protagonist's role attracting actresses including Cate Blanchett and Dame Maggie Smith.

Are we still shocked by Hedda?

"I think that at that period in time there were rules and regulations and etiquette and you had to live by those norms," Helen says.

"That value system is still alive today, but it's not as overwhelming as it was.

"There will be people coming to see the show that are traditionalists in that way and I don't know if it will please them, but I don't think it is particularly shocking now because our values have changed so much."

Played in this production by newcomer Vickie Jarvis - "I think a lot of men would fall in love with her, she has a very soulful quality about her" - Helen says directing the part of Hedda has been a challenge.

"Because it's quite difficult to figure out what Hedda's motives are, you can feel you're wading through treacle," she says. "What is interesting to me is that I feel she was more identified with the masculine than feminine.

"She was really closing down to herself as a woman, partly because of the period in which the play was set, and I thought that was quite relevant to today's woman who surges ahead in life and puts all her eggs in baskets, but doesn't always stop to think.

"Hedda is an idealist and as an idealist nothing will ever come up to her expectations. Nothing will ever be right and from that there is infinite suffering."

Helen, who also directed the theatre's 2007 production of American Buffalo, admits she had qualms about taking on the classic play.

"There have been times when I've thought, Oh my God, what have I done?'," she says. "Is this play going to be slated? Will I do it justice? Am I being Hedda in all of this - manipulating the play to serve my own ends?

"It's been intimidating for everybody at different levels, but I think that's good because you can't become complacent."

  • 7.45pm (2.30pm matinee Sun, Mar 30), £5-£9. Call 01273 746118