When Gregers Werle returns home after a self-imposed exile, he spurns his family’s opulent home and lucrative business, instead taking a modest room in the attic apartments of Hjalmar Ekdal, a former classmate, and his family. Gripped by “an acute case of inflamed scruples,” Gregers then begins to dismantle the latticework of lies that has kept life tolerable for the Ekdals, each of whom bears the wounds of a long-suppressed secret.
An exquisitely constructed and richly nuanced work, The Wild Duck has often been called “the master’s masterpiece.” In this 1884 tragicomedy, Henrik Ibsen reached new heights of poetic realism, while asking whether happiness is possible after the illusions that sustain existence have been shattered. The Wild Duck was directed by Caitriona McLaughlin, who staged SummerScape 2010’s acclaimed production of Judgment Day.
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