Do you reveal the truth to those around you, thinking it will help when it's none of your business?
When "the truth" may set you free but may make matters worse and upset family dynamics?
Do I tell my best friend her husband is having an affair with her next door neighbor? Or that I heard from medical team members that her mother's cancer has returned and it's terminable?
Is it up to me?
The second act of The Wild Duck caused my hand and fingers to stop moving.
I was hypnotized and my notetaking ceased, overcome by Shakespeare Theatre Company's Henrik Ibsen's The Wild Duck, "rarely performed" and likely the only time I'll see it, according to program notes by the theatre's artistic director, Simon Godwin, who directs.
Not one sneeze, one cough, or one dropped program by audience members sounded in the auditorium of several hundred.
We were breathless, unable to break the total silence which engulfed the venue.
But lest I go hyperbolic, do go prepared. Read a synopsis beforehand, but even that won't prepare you for this spellbinding performance.
The first act is the calm before the storm, the explosion of the second act when Gina (Melanie Field), a mousy wife we are led to believe, evolves into a forceful dynamo to stand her ground and make her pleas that she is a loving wife, no matter what has happened in the past, but husband, Hjalmar (Nick Westrate), refuses to accept her arguments, begging for forgiveness and acceptance of the past.
Their daughter, Hedvig (Maaike Laanstra-Corn) is a clingy type, torn by her dad's anger and her blood curdling screams typify the tragedy which I joined in mourning. (Had I not been "prepared," no doubt I would have been sobbing with the woman behind me.)
The first act's gentle husband becomes a possessive spouse/louse, urged on by the devil incarnate, Gregers Werle (Alexander Hurt), always wearing black and spouting the same, trying to "do good," or is he?
Can't you realize, Hjalmar, what's happening? But, Hjalmar is blinded by passion and the past.
The acting is superb, none finer than that by David Patrick Kelly, the slow and bent grandpa who has a relationship, too, with the arrogant and conceited patriarch (Robert Stanton) who has relationships with everybody, including his disaffected son who resist his father's moves and money.
Alexander Sovronsky is the music director who, with sound designer Darron L. West, has composed a beautiful and unforgettable score of 19th century Norwegian folk and classical music which Sovronsky plays on various instruments between scenes.
It is David Eldridge’s version of Ibsen's play, the place, Norway in the 1880s.
Ibsen is often referred to as the "father of modern drama" and, according to Wikipedia, "the most important playwright since Shakespeare" who influenced, among others, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Eugene O'Neill, and James Joyce.
Some consider Wild Duck the most complex and Ibsen's finest work, the first modern masterpiece in the genre of tragicomedy, but writing about it, the humorous parts totally eclipsed me who found it somewhat sexist.
In program notes, Drew Lichtenberg quotes Ibsen: Wild Duck "will certainly provoke discussion, but it cannot possibly give offense to anyone." I beg to differ.
Cast members include Katie Broad, Mahira Kakkar, Bobby Plasencia, and Matthew Saldivar.
Other creative team members are Andrew Boyce, scenics;
Heather C. Freedman, costumes; Stacey Derosier, lighting;
Jacob Grigolia-Rosenbaum, movement and fight director; Andrew Wade, voices; Satellite Wigs; Jonno Knust, properties; Laura Smith, production stage manager; Dayne Sundman, assistant stage manager.
What: The Wild Duck
When: Through Nov. 16, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. with weekend matinees at 2 p.m.
Where: Shakespeare Theatre Company's Klein Theatre, 450 7th St., NW, Washington, DC 20004
Tickets: Start at $39
Audio Description: Saturday, Nov. 8, 2pm
Open Captioning: Wednesday, Nov. 12, 12 p.m., and Nov. 13, 7:30pm
Audience: For adults and mature children
For more information: Call the Box Office at 202-547-1122, seven days a week, 12 – 6pm which remains open until curtain time. ShakespeareTheatre.org.
Duration: About 2.5 hours with one intermission
Metro Stations: Gallery Place, Archives, Metro Center
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