Adam Clough and Kimberly Furness in Hedda GablerDirected by David Bonde, the Curtainbox Theatre Company's Hedda Gabler starts off on a happy, frivolous tone. As George Tesman (Reader employee Mike Schulz) tells his Aunt Julie (Corinne Johnson) about the honeymoon from which he's just returned, they share smiles and hopeful, knowing glances. Yet several minutes into this, during Tuesday night's performance, I was a bit bored, wondering why the Curtainbox - which had consistently produced weighty, thoughtful material - was suddenly producing a script filled with such lighthearted but fundamentally pointless drivel.

And then Kimberly Furness made her entrance.