Arch Harmon and Ted James/Photo: Johnny Knight
“The Wild Duck” is an incomparable masterpiece. Nearly one-hundred-and-twenty years ago, George Bernard Shaw wrote, “Where shall I find an epithet magnificent enough for ‘The Wild Duck!’” At the Halcyon Theatre Friday night, I saw what purported to be Ibsen’s tragedy. It was a caricature, acted by persons who knew nothing of its terror, power and comedy—had no inkling of its perfection in technical detail, stage direction, speech and gesture, and its uncanny economy of means. The actors were innocent of what took place.
I ask director Tony Adams, his assistant directors, Claire Reinhart and Laura Stephenson, and the dramaturge, Carla Della Gatta, ‘What were you thinking? What possessed you? Why remake Gina Ekdal into a nineteenth-century proto-feminist? Did it occur to you that by so doing you destroyed the argument Ibsen built to expose the sentimental, self-pitying, idealist follies of two male fools? That you indulged yourselves in the false idealism he spent his wisdom and common sense to annihilate?’
Perhaps you thought you were protecting Ibsen’s reputation as a herald of feminism? Did you tell yourselves that by making Gina a repressed artist ahead of her time, a closet feminist photographer capable of persuading engaged couples to shed their clothes, you were doing what Ibsen would have done if he lived in our times?
If so, you were wrong. You ruined the play. Ibsen’s Gina is slow, stolid, ignorant, a Mrs. Malaprop (imitating her “intellectual” husband) who believes in every social construct you (and I) find abhorrent: Male superiority and dominance, the wife’s duty to feed her husband’s illusions, her loving obedience to husbandly whims—all of it. True, Gina loves well, knows reality and talks common sense. That should have been enough.
“The Wild Duck” needed neither the irrelevant musical interludes nor the anachronistic nudity. Both wrecked the absorption of the audience into the horror-comedy of Gregers and Hialmar’s self-love and their pathetic phrase-making. This is the heart of the play: How “the claims of the ideal” (not “the demands of justice”) lead to misery, idleness, and death.
The performance failed as a tragedy, a comedy—and a “musical.” (Bill Sweetland)
The Halcyon Theatre, 3253 West Wilson, (773)413-0454, halcyontheatre.org, $20. Through June 14.
Related Stories
Wade in the Water: A Review of The River Bride at Halcyon Theatre RECOMMENDED Halcyon Theatre’s all-Latinx cast, part of their commitment to “making the stage as diverse as the city of Chicago,” surfaces playwright Marisela Treviño Orta’s “grim Latino fairy tale” from murky waters. Set in a small Brazilian village along the Amazon River, “The River Bride” takes its audience on a mystical journey through a universal tale between two sisters, Helena…- A True American Family: A Review of American Hwangap at Halcyon Theatre RECOMMENDED “I wrote a poem for you, Dad,” says his son Ralph, shifting his weight from side to side, twitching with nerves. He forgot the poem in his other trousers, though, and finishes his toast ad lib, lifting a Juicy Juice juice box instead of a glass because his anti-anxiety meds are contraindicated with alcohol. It’s been a long time…
- A Time To Be Wild: A Review of Bewildered at Hell in a Handbag Productions Hell In A Handbag continue to improve on their signature formula of camp excess and memorable performances.
- Wild Women: A Review of The Taming of the Shrew at Chicago Shakespeare Theater A fresh take on one of Shakespeare's most socially construed works.
- First Draft Of History: A Review of Wild Boar at Silk Road Rising Candace Chong's 2012 play about the former British colony of Hong Kong receives an urgent, if occasionally heavy-handed, American premiere.
- Impressive Arrival: A Review of Yerma at Theatre Y and Red Tape Theatre This co-production with Red Tape Theatre marks a mature and invigorating new phase for Theatre Y.
alas mr. sweetland has confused his own perceptions, albeit supremely fine tuned tho they may be, for those who produced, directed and put on the play. in “updating” an old work, play makers do us a great favor- they attempt to keep the drama relevant. the germans call it dramaturgy, the considerable art of taking an old work and revealing it as something that speaks directly to our own time: brecht and piscator were masters of the art. and mr. sweetland reveals just a wee bit of the philistein- when he notes there was, horrors, even some nudity.
Warren, I saw the production. There is a difference between updating a play and destroying it. My very first question upon completion of the play was “where was the friggin’ dramaturg?” I’m left with two possibilities: A) the person with that title doesn’t know what that job means or B) the director refused to heed their protestations. Listen, far be it from me to agree with a critical review when I know how hard people work to get an audience and to create something they care so much about, but Mr. Sweetland is spot on. The play made NO sense… Read more »