Date of Award
Spring 5-1-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Theatre
First Advisor
Christine Scarfuto
Second Advisor
Emma Horwitz
Academic Program Adviser
Christine Scarfuto
Abstract
Hannah is a contemporary adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, which reimagines Ibsen's heroine as a "stealth" (or undetected) transsexual woman living among the American conservative elite in Washington D.C. Newly married to George Taylor, a charismatic but financially strained far-right media personality, Hannah struggles to maintain the façade she has constructed when Eliot Loving, a volatile political streamer and figure from past, reappears in her life. Their collision, orchestrated by the manipulative power-broker Judge Brock, upends Hannah's sense of self and forces her into a desperate struggle for her own autonomy and security. In a deliberate subversion of the finale found in the original Ibsen, Hannah concludes not with the suicide of its title character, but with her killing the Judge in the hopes of her own liberation.
Recommended Citation
Monahan, Nora Brigid, "Hannah" (2026). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_sas_etds/1567
