Actress Katie Holmes will help the Old Globe Theatre kick off its 2026 season as the lead in a new production of Henrik Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler," it was announced Tuesday.
The Globe-commissioned version of the play is by Erin Cressida Wilson. "Hedda Gabler" will play on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center in Balboa Park.
Performances run Feb. 7 through March 8, 2026.
The Old Globe's Artistic Director Barry Edelstein, who directed Holmes in the off-Broadway production of "The Wanderers" in 2023, is set to direct this "fresh and emotionally charged take on the Ibsen classic," according to a statement from the Globe.
"`Hedda Gabler' is one of the landmark works of world drama and I'm truly thrilled to bring a bracing new take on it to the Globe," Edelstein said. "Like all of Ibsen's plays, this one is obsessed by how the choices we make in our pasts come back around to shape our present. That's why it's so fun that it reunites me with two artists I've had significant collaborations with over the years."
The first is playwright and screenwriter Wilson. The other is Holmes (whose credits include "Dawson's Creek," "Batman Begins" and "Logan Lucky").
"Hedda, like Hamlet, rises or falls with the actor in the title role. [Holmes is] everything: victim, tyrant, femme fatale; funny, scathing, tragic," Edelstein said. "Only an actor with immense imagination and charisma can take on Hedda Gabler, and in Katie's radiant and powerful performance, Globe audiences are going to witness something rare and special.
"She's an artist at the height of her powers and we're lucky to have her in San Diego. This is going to be a memorable moment at The Old Globe, and I can't wait to share it."
The Tony Award-winning Old Globe is a professional nonprofit regional theater, now in its 90th year. It produces a year-round season of 16 productions of classic, contemporary, and new works on its three Balboa Park stages.
The Old Globe will announce its full 2026 season at a later date.
Tickets are currently available by subscription only at TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at 619-234-5623, and in person at the Globe's box office in Balboa Park.
