'The Wild Duck' Off-Broadway review — Ibsen classic lands in Brooklyn in a rare revival
Read our review of The Wild Duck off Broadway, a revival of Henrik Ibsen's play co-presented by Theatre for a New Audience at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center.
Deep into The Wild Duck, an intriguing but peculiar drama about a Norwegian family’s downfall due to an outsider, a scene unfolds that’s just plain gutting. No spoilers for anyone who’s never read or seen Henrik Ibsen’s seldom-produced 1884 drama. But a familial portrait emerges — father, mother, and daughter — that stays with you long after the final bows.
Up to this point, director Simon Godwin’s period-dress revival is a mixed bag that alternately pulls you close and pushes you away. Part of that owes to the play itself, seen here in a conversational version by David Eldridge that debuted in London in 2005. It’s a strange blend of tragedy and absurdity, realism and poetics, plus characters you regularly laugh at, not with. Like when a family man harps about his supposed in-the-works invention and when another key character’s tunnel vision stretches credulity.
Yes, life is riotously messy. Sure, there’s comedy in the follies of human behavior. But the teeter-tottering tone still jars. While this production’s fine cast hits all their marks, the characters and their motivations tend to be two-dimensional. Godwin’s choice to underscore scene breaks with a roaming musician — Fiddler on the Fjord? — is curious; it's an unneeded reminder that we’re watching a play.
The plot revolves around a catastrophic collision of truth and illusions. Driven by unrelenting idealism, Gregers Werle (Alexander Hurt) determines to set his friend Hjalmar Ekdal (Nick Westrate) straight about his wife Gina (Melanie Field) and their teenage daughter Hedvig (Maaike Laanstra-Corn). Hjalmar immediately comes to view his home as a “swamp of deceit.”
Stuffed with noisy, clanging symbols, including the wounded title bird and a photographer, Hjalmar, who doesn't see what’s around him, the play covers well-traveled Ibsen themes: hierarchies, hypocrisy, morality, and the complexities of family life. The play poses a provocative question: Should the truth be pursued blindly, and at any cost? In the end, the play gets you thinking even as it remains, dramatically speaking, an odd duck.
The Wild Duck summary
The Wild Duck follows Gregers Werle, the idealistic son of a wealthy businessman, on his quest to expose his father's duplicity and free his childhood friend Hjalmar Ekdal from the lies on which his happy home life is based. Gregers's uninvited interference disrupts the Ekdals' fragile happiness, particularly affecting Hjalmar's adolescent daughter Hedvig, who takes des to prove her love to her father.
What to expect at The Wild Duck
Revivals can take many creative directions: resetting the time period, updating the costumes, or relocating the action to a striking new setting. This production remains faithful to the original template, with excellent work from the design team.
Andrew Boyce’s set imagines both a well-to-do living room and working-class photographer’s studio, Heather C. Freedman’s costumes evoke the period and distinguish each character (Gregers’s father’s showy fur coat makes quite the impression), and Stacey Derosier’s lighting lends a rich mix of glow and shadow.
Directing this play about truth, Godwin makes a small but telling choice while staging a dinner scene. Instead of cheating the setup so all actors face the audience as directors typically do, he honors realism — backs and all. Little details matter.
What audiences are saying about The Wild Duck
As of writing, The Wild Duck had an 86% grade on Show-Score, the audience review aggregator. Theatregoers praised Ibsen as a classic playwright, this cast's acting, and the play's evergreen themes.
- “The Wild Duck is about fragility – from a wounded bird to relationships that rely on keeping the ugly part in the dark. This version of Ibsen’s tragicomedy starts a bit slow then turns great, though some moments were on the shouty side.” Show-Score user aka
- “If you love Ibsen as I do, this will be right up your alley. I'm very surprised they don’t revive this gem of a play more often – it’s superior to Ghosts and in the same vein. This production, however, is a bit all over the place in terms of its acting.” Show-Score user Ashowgoer
- “The play features both light and witty moments, as well as darker ones. The highlight here is the intensity of the characters and how the theme of parenting may resonate with contemporary & modern families.” Show-Score user Elisa 9119
Read more audience reviews of The Wild Duck on Show-Score.
Who should see The Wild Duck
- Ibsen’s work has recently been seen in New York in An Enemy of the People starring Jeremy Strong, A Doll’s House starring Jessica Chastain, and Ghosts starring Lily Rabe and Billy Crudup. Fans of the playwright will want to see this play.
- Ibsen often tackles moral dilemmas, hypocrisy, and personal responsibility, all enticing themes for someone who enjoys big ethical questions.
- Theatregoers who love classic dramas will be drawn to Ibsen’s influence on modern realism and dramatic structure.
- Audiences drawn to stories of illusions, facades, and the destructive force of exposing secrets — Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire comes to mind — will appreciate what The Wild Duck explores.
Learn more about The Wild Duck
The Wild Duck rarely appears on stage, so despite some reservations, audiences are encouraged to flock to this co-production of Theatre for a New Audience and Shakespeare Theatre Company while they can.
Photo credit: The Wild Duck off Broadway. (Top photo by Gerry Goodstein; in-article photos by Hollis King)
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