CONSTRAINED by society, like a bird in a cage, Amanda Donohoe brings a passionate fragility to her performance of Hedda Gabler.

In her struggle to break out of the mould that the world is keen to place her in, Gabler is a woman desperate to gain the power that men have so long enjoyed.

And though she may appear to have everything, the dashing husband, glamorous friends and a stunning home, she soon tires and bores of her life.

Sadly all too soon disillusionment hits, and by the time the honeymoon is over, she is bored and petulant, enjoying nothing, feeling nothing, caught in her stiff tight clothes as in her claustrophobic world.

Amanda Donohoe plays a mesmerising Gabler, with her cruel tongue and power dressing, people stand in awe.

But she is trapped in the bird-cage of her life, ingeniously portrayed by the set designer's use of towering metalwork, and the scarlet sash of her mouth soon symbolises the injuries she inflicts on her victims.

Everyone was well cast especially the older women Avril Elgar and Eileen Essell.

The cold calculation of Judge Brack (Terence Wilton) is starkly contrasted to the barely controlled hysteria of Thea Elvstead (Kate Isitt), whilst the louche portrait of Tesman (Simon Robson) did get on the nerves, but that is probably the idea.

James Clyne as Loevbrog was mesmerising.

This is a must-see production, which works well.

Hedda Gabler

Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, until December 1