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The Wild Duck

Theater

Gregers Werle, the idealistic and dogmatic son of a wealthy businessman, wreaks havoc when he embarks on a crusade to unveil the false foundations of the life of his friend, Hjalmar Ekdal. Ignorant of the adults’ machinations, Hedvig, a young girl, tries to shield the fragile eponymous duck from the injuries of the world. Gregers’ imposition of “righteousness” however, leads to turmoil and death. Ibsen’s genius was to create complex characters who compel us with their humanity.

Schedule

11:30 PM

onwards

Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Location

Polonsky Shakespeare Center

262 Ashland Pl, Brooklyn, NY 11217, USA

Access Type

Duration

2 hr 10 min plus a 15 minutes break

Ticketed

English

$20 to $125

Monday, September 29, 2025

Start

End

Language

About The Event

Ibsen’s 1884 play The Wild Duck is an accessible, provocative, modern drama centered in a family.

Gregers Werle, the idealistic and dogmatic son of a wealthy businessman, wreaks havoc when he embarks on a crusade to unveil the false foundations of the life of his friend, Hjalmar Ekdal. Ignorant of the adults’ machinations, Hedvig, a young girl, tries to shield the fragile eponymous duck from the injuries of the world. Gregers’ imposition of “righteousness” however, leads to turmoil and death. Ibsen’s genius was to create complex characters who compel us with their humanity.

Director Simon Godwin observes, “Ibsen was consciously trying to redirect us from the easy classification of 'this is a comedy, this is a tragedy.' And he was following the steps of the late plays of Shakespeare in recognizing that we can move dexterously from something that makes us smile to something that makes us cry. The tragedy and the comedy are a 'mingled yarn' (to quote Shakespeare) of emotional possibility. We are drawn into a very compelling story and left to consider the role of truth in our own lives."

Simon Godwin (Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya starring Hugh Bonneville and Shakespeare’s Macbeth with Indira Varma and Ralph Fiennes), Artistic Director of Shakespeare Theatre Company, returns to TFANA (Measure for Measure and Timon of Athens) to direct this rarely produced Ibsen masterpiece.

David Eldridge’s version had its world premiere at London’s Donmar Warehouse in 2005. Michael Billington wrote “Eldridge brings out Ibsen’s permanent relevance without any textual coarsening…The Wild Duck explains why Ibsen is the greatest dramatist after Shakespeare” (The Guardian). This is the first major Off-Broadway production of the play in the Eldridge version.

Time and Place: 1880s, a city in Norway.

About The Organizer

After more than three decades of award-winning and internationally-acclaimed productions, in 2013 Theatre for a New Audience opened its first home, Polonsky Shakespeare Center. Funded and developed through a public-private partnership with The City of New York, Polonsky Shakespeare Center was designed by celebrated architect Hugh Hardy and H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture. It is the first theatre in New York designed and built expressly for classic drama since Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont in the 1960s. The facility bears the name Polonsky Shakespeare Center in recognition of a naming gift from The Polonsky Foundation.

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