Friday March 29, 2024
THE WILD DUCK
Review

THE WILD DUCK

February 17 2011

THE WILD DUCK, Belvoir at Belvoir St Theatre, February 16-March 20, 2011. Photos: Heidrun Lohr

IN THE PROGRAM NOTES for this radical reinterpretation of Henrik Ibsen’s 1884 masterpiece, Belvoir’s new artistic director and the production’s set designer Ralph Myers quotes from a letter written by the Norwegian playwright to a friend. In it Ibsen is setting out his criteria for a play, in part: “The language must sound natural and the form of expression must be characteristic of each individual person in the play …”

What sounded natural in 1884, however, could sound stilted today; while Ibsen’s influential “Realism” – of plot, style and character – is no longer startling to audiences long accustomed to such phenomena. How then, in 2011, to remain true to the sprawling, discursive drama of 13 characters and many naturalistic scenes, that slowly reveal the past betrayals, lies within lies and love gone sour of a family as dysfunctional as any in modern drama?

Director/writer Simon Stone, with co-writer Chris Ryan and dramaturg Eamon Flack have answered their own question with a spare and concise script. It is breathtakingly elegant and contemporary but rings true to its origins throughout. Then, they have contained the action within starkly lit glass walls in a space devoid of colour, props or scenery that resembles a particularly soulless lab rat observation tank. Out of the glass box they have fashioned a crucible in which the essence of the play’s action is distilled into explosively modern key scenes and just six characters.

Within their walls, the actors are radio-miked to a dramatic degree. As the play is reinvented, so is the relationship of actor, audience and voice. Every sigh, every nuance is enhanced in a heightened realism that quickly becomes emotionally intense and extraordinary in the hands of an ensemble of individually brilliant actors: Ekdal (Anthony Phelan), who is slowly going senile after a lifetime of imprisonment and disgrace caused by his old friend and business partner Werle (John Gaden). Ekdal lives with his son Hjalmar (Ewen Leslie) and daughter-in-law Gina (Anita Hegh) and their daughter Hedwig (Eloise Mignon). Werle’s son Gregers (Toby Schmitz) returns from self-imposed exile with knowledge about the past that he feels compelled to reveal. Disaster and tragedy naturally follow on from these unwelcome truths, all lit by almost incongruous laughter and tender moments.

THE WILD DUCK

From the 21st century perspective of often fleeting and fragmented relationships, core and non-core promises and generally slippery attitudes towards truth (what is it, after all?) this – new – play is a disturbingly luminous and moving interlude in emotionally dark times. It’s to be enjoyed and savoured long after it’s over.

The Duck, however, is actually a frightful ham. He is very cute and shamelessly steals the opening scene; after which he should be barbecued. WC Fields was right.

A version of the review appeared in The Australian.

 

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