The Wild Duck

A co-production with The Norwegian Ibsen Company and Den Nationale Scene, Bergen

Should truth be pursued at all cost?

The Norwegian Ibsen Company makes a very welcome return to The Coronet with a new production of one of Ibsen’s best known plays, The Wild Duck. As always, the NIC brings its distinctive Norwegian perspective on the dramatic and comic genius of one of Norway’s greatest writers. Its sell-out productions of When We Dead Awaken in 2022 and The Lady from The Sea in 2019 received both audience and critical acclaim.

“When we catch ourselves in the mirror in the morning, we hold our stomach in. When we smile at each other through the window of social media, it’s a fake and filtered smile. We fictionalize and stage our lives for ourselves and one another—but are we blind to the truth?” (Alan Lucien Øyen, director)

In The Wild Duck, Ibsen envisions the deadly danger of idealism with the story of a family torn apart by secrets, and the intrusion of an outsider, whose idealistic mission is to reveal all in the name of truth and honesty. His gratuitous truth-telling has shocking consequences.

“There’s something about hearing Ibsen’s lines spoken in his native tongue that lends them such music; you don’t need to be bilingual to enjoy the tune.” (The Stage, When We Dead Awaken, 2022)

Using Ibsen’s original text, this brand new staging, which is performed in Norwegian with English surtitles, has a cast of some of Norway’s most celebrated actors, and is directed by Hedda Award-winner Alan Lucien Øyen