The Wild Duck, Shakespeare Theatre Company
I remember long ago reading that when Henrik Ibsen's plays were causing an uproar across half of Europe, the rules around topics to ban at dinner parties were expanded to include religion, politics, and Ibsen. I truly couldn't source that story if I tried, but there's something fascinating about how Ibsen giving voice to the unspeakable on his stage meant his work became unspeakable in real life. The anecdote has been running through my mind since I saw Simon Godwin's excellent production of The Wild Duck , currently onstage at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. The plot of Wild Duck centers around a young man determined to speak to the things that have been buried in the past of a childhood friend's marriage, career, and children, certain that shedding light on what's been left in the dark will bring only happiness and goodness moving forward. Instead, he shatters their lives irrevocably and incites tragedy in his wake. Maaike Laanstra - Corn as Hedvig,...
