Twelve people are heading to the National Theatre in Oslo. Each of them with a ticket to the opening night of a new staging of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler.

Amongst them, a teacher who got a little too close to his student and is now dreading a public scandal. A father, who has recently lost his daughter to suicide, unsure of whether he can handle watching someone get shot in the final act. And a young activist planning to get up and shout out her protest the middle of the play.

Ready to take the stage is Hedda Christine Foss, playing the part of Ibsen’s Hedda. No one knows that the gun she will carry with her on stage is real and loaded.

Seated in the third row is her former lover. In the fourth, a hated critic. And in the very first, the Norwegian Prime Minister.