Review: ‘The Wild Duck’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company
- Anita W. Harris
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 16 hours ago
In the shadow of the White House, two plays by Henrik Ibsen are currently being staged that explore “truth” in different ways — “An Enemy of the People” at Theater J and “The Wild Duck” at Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC).*
At a Nov. 2 symposium sponsored by STC, Hayley Finn, the artistic director of Theatre J, talked about the current relevance of Amy Herzog’s adaptation of “An Enemy of the People,” in which the fact that bacteria in local waters might kill a lot of people is dangerously suspended between science and politics (sound familiar?).
By contrast, “The Wild Duck” brings the question of truth squarely into the domestic sphere, portraying how a 19th-century Norwegian family’s delicate balance of survival and cohesion is threatened by a revelation. As adapted by David Eldridge and directed by STC Artistic Director Simon Godwin, the play universalizes how the idealistic pursuit of truth at any cost may be more destructive than its silencing.
Though the play begins in the home of wealthy widower Håkon Werle (Robert Stanton), the rest of the story unfolds in the wooden home of the Ekdal family, gorgeously designed by Andrew Boyce with a large, slanted window and elevated loft, complemented by Stacey Derosier’s subtly changing lighting and Alexander Sovronsky’s solo violin performances between scenes.
The Ekdal’s world is self-contained but also at the mercy of outside wintery elements, limited income, two tenants who both drink, and how 14-year-old daughter Hedvig (Maaike Laanstra-Corn) may be losing her sight. The girl also “owns” a maimed wild duck that lives in the loft with other animals.
Though seemingly simple, the story is deceptively powerful through the richly drawn characters and tension created by their intricate interactions over two days, all excellently enacted by the ensemble cast.
Nick Westrate, who plays Hedvig’s father Hjalmar, described at the symposium how director Godwin had the actors read the play aloud together, not only their own roles but each line and stage direction, to foster an understanding of how each part serves the whole.
This cohesiveness is palpable in the production, with no character standing out as “lead” but rather each figuring in the tapestry of the familial drama (it’s also funny, though Westrate said it got more laughs when performed in New York than D.C.).
Hjalmar’s wife Gina (Melanie Field) is the key to keeping the family together and functional. She not only puts food on the table and takes care of the finances but also manages her daughter Hedvig, Hjalmar’s photography business and his elderly father Old Ekdal (David Patrick Kelly, well cast) — even as the men go “hunting” in the loft with guns (seemingly what men did before video games).
Into their precariously balanced midst arrives Gregers Werle (Alexander Hurt), son of the wealthy man and long-time friend of Hjalmar’s, who has an unquenchable idealistic streak that justifies him breaking from his father but also threatens to break up the Ekdal family when he insists everyone face a truth long buried.
The intensity of how this plays out is both riveting and shocking. It also makes one question the value of idealism and truth when human lives are at stake. What is the “truth” anyway — is it fact or is it lived reality?
Bringing these feelings and thoughts home is a phenomenal and dedicated cast — Laanstra-Corn fully embodying the young and vulnerable Hedvig; Field maintaining Gina’s composure and strength, even against the unthinkable; Westrate conveying the boyish absurdity of Hjalmar’s self-centered reactions and idealistic vision of his “invention”; and Hurt stalwart and intense in his unenviable position as Gregers, bringing light to where it is neither needed nor wanted.
Even the more minor roles are performed with integrity and emotion, especially Matthew Saldivar as the passionate but realistic Dr. Relling, who believes “life-lies” allow one to bear living as opposed to Gregers’ stark truths.
STC’s production of “The Wild Duck” is thus a compelling, challenging and thought-provoking experience, leaving one emotionally shell-shocked by the end, unable to avoid thinking of the ramifications of those thoughts and feelings in one’s own life — and in our current world, where the very idea of truth has become so fraught.
“The Wild Duck” continues through Nov. 16 at Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Klein Theatre, 450 Seventh St. NW, Washington, D.C. with performances Tuesdays through Fridays at 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. For tickets and information, call the box office at (202) 547-1122 or visit ShakespeareTheatre.org. Run time is 2 hours and 30 minutes, including intermission.
* Not to mention a third Ibsen adaptation — a new-work reading on Oct. 26 of “The White Bitch; or Hedda Gabler in Helgeland,” written by STC dramaturg Drew Lichtenberg at Spooky Action Theater and directed by its artistic director Beth Dinkova. Both Lichtenberg and Dinkova eloquently shared their knowledge and perspective on Ibsen at STC's Nov. 2 "The Wiild Duck" symposium, along with Hayley Finn of Theater J, Ibsen scholar Rick Davis, and actors Nick Westrate and Melanie Field.
Comments