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.
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Ostensibly, the play centers around the stories of these two childhood friends, Gregers Werle (Alexander Hurt) and Hjalmar Ekdal (Nick Westrate, who was excellent last season in Emily Burns's Frankenstein), as they play out the drama of exposing that Werle's father solved two of his own sins with one solution y marrying a former servant he'd violated off to the son of the man he betrayed. Convenient! As Gina Ekdal, Melanie Fields does tremendous work again at STC, her Sonya the true standout of last season's Uncle Vanya. Gina simmers under the surface with all the words she chooses not to share, not to use to explain or justify herself to these men, even as she continues to exercise the agency she has to preserve her family and the lives of herself and her daughter. Ibsen doesn't use the word "rape" to describe the elder Werle's actions, leaving it implied and inexplicit, but it's clear in Fields' steely eyes that that's exactly what occurred; it's a fascinating moment of the great writer of social issues not fully voicing what most women implicitly know and what even the younger Werle onstage clearly refuses to engage with.
The most compelling performance of the production, however, lies with Maaike Laanstra-Corn's performance as Hedvig, the young daughter of the Ekdals. Ibsen's portrayal of a naive and sheltered young woman obsessed with the well-being of an adopted duck has every potential to ring false, but Laanstra-Corn's Hedvig bursts with recognizable life, and she capably carries the climax of the play in her hands. It's a soulful performance that is perhaps the most memorable element of a very successful production.
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Supporting the performances onstage is beautiful work from Heather C. Freedman's costumes, as well as lighting design by Stacey Derosier that evokes the changing Nordic light as ably as it highlights Alexander Sovronsky's live music interstitials. The Ekdal home is intricately rendered by set designer Andrew Boyce (although I remain puzzled by the vinyl illustrated walls of the Werle home in Act 1). Tragically, it must be noted, there is no duck wrangler to salute because the titular duck never appears onstage.
The Wild Duck is rarely performed, which is a pity, as it has many of Ibsen's strengths as a writer on display. In Godwin's production, we also have the treat of feeling all that is likewise left unsaid reverberate just as much as the words of the playwright. Go ahead--bring this one up at dinner. I promise it'll be a fruitful discussion.
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