The Wild Duck

In the Ekdal family’s attic, amid rabbits and hens, lives a wounded wild duck which has grown accustomed to being a “lame duck”. The bird is the pride of the family and is dearly loved by all of them, especially 14-year-old Hedwig. When the idealist and fanatical truth-teller Gregers Werle comes to town, he makes it his business to set his boyhood friend Hjalmar Ekdal straight: In his frenzy to call people to account, Gregers Werle reveals the truth about Hjalmar’s modest life and his wife Gina’s secret past. Hjalmar’s world falls apart. “Rob the average man of his life-illusion, and you rob him of his happiness at the same stroke”, writes Henrik Ibsen in The Wild Duck. In his play, the Norwegian specialist for life-illusions tackles the ideal of absolute truthfulness, as well as the mania for enlightenment at all costs.