PACKMalthouse Theatre presents

THE WILD DUCKa Belvoir Production

This production of The Wild Duck premiered upstairs at Belvoir Theatre, Sydney, March 2011

Prompt Pack – Written and compiled by Meg Upton for Malthouse Theatre Youth and Education © 2012

An educational resource

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CONTENTS

ABOUT MALTHOUSE THEATRE

Cast and Creative Team 3

Introduction to Prompt Pack 3

Classics in Australia 3

Synopsis 3

Historical Contexts 4

Henrik Ibsen in brief 4

Political and Philosophical Context 6

What the Critics Have Said 7

A Production for Two Theatres 8

Analysing the Wild Duck 10

Contexts and the World of the Play 10

Recontextualising and Structure 11

Dramatic Tension and Theatrical Styles 12

Acting and Characterisation 13

Set Design 13

Sound, Lighting, Costume and Props 14

Themes and Ideas 15

Script Exploration 17

Sample Essay Questions 20

Worksheet 21

Interview with Simon Stone, Director

Interview with Carl Nilsson-Polias, Marketing & Publicity, Malthouse

Interview with David Craig & David Miller, Production

Interview with Van Badham Associate Artist (Writing)

A work sheet to photocopy and fill out.

Malthouse Theatre is at once a treasured building, a theatre company, a creative site and an engine for change. It is also the imaginative expression of a committed team of artmakers reaching out to an even larger number of local, national and international artists. All are dedicated to an ongoing conversation with audiences of exciting diversity and character. This conversation chooses contemporary theatre as its vehicle: a compelling annual program of adventurous, multi-disciplinary work inspired by writers, directors, designers, choreographers, audio artists and performers. Here, the combined possibilities of all theatre arts are offered centre stage – for entertainment, for inspiration, and even for fun.

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CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM

WRITTEN BY Simon Stone with Chris Ryan after Henrik Ibsen

DIRECTED BY Simon Stone

SET DESIGN Ralph Myers

COSTUME DESIGN Tess Schofield

LIGHTING DESIGN Niklas Pajanti

COMPOSITION AND Stefan GregorySOUND DESIGN

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Anne-Louise Sarks

DRAMATURGY Eamon Flack

PERFORMED BY PICTURED LEFT TO RIGHT

John Gaden Haakon Werle, a wealthy businessman

Anita Hegh Gina Ekdal, Hjalmar’s wife

Ewen Leslie Hjalmar Ekdal, a photographer

Eloise Mignon Hedvig, daughter to Gina and Hjalmar

Anthony Phelan Old Ekdal, father of Hjalmar, former business partner to Werle

Toby Schmitz Gregers Werle, son of Werle, school friend to Hjalmar

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CLASSICS IN AUSTRALIA

“Why are the classics such a vital part of our theatrical culture? Plenty of reasons. There have been many, many great plays in the last 2500 years and most of them are out of copyright. They’re substantial, robust and adaptable. They invite collaboration: actors, directors and designers can wade into their largeness and meet in the middle. And they often amaze us with how familiar and suitable to the times they feel. To return to a previous point, when there isn’t an Australian play for such and such an occasion, there’ll probably be a classic. In the midst of modern life’s weird mix of humdrum and chaos, these plays can emerge out of the past with startling originality and truthfulness. Tried and tested as they are they can show the way. Most wonderfully of all, they’re not our plays. They’re someone else’s. They don’t exist here with the same burden of language and tradition as they do in their hoe countries. The classics can run free here.”

Eamon Flack (from 2011 Belvoir programme – an edited version of the Editor’s Preface to Currency

Press’s Currency Classics series)

SYNOPSIS

Simon Stone transplants Ibsen’s characters into the contemporary world in his adaptation of Ibsen’s The Wild Duck. Hjalmar Ekdal grew up rich but scandal cast him into poverty. Now he lives in a tiny flat with his father, his wife, his daughter and a duck. When his old friend Gregers Werle returns with unfinished business, the truth Gregers brings could shatter the world Hjalmar has built around himself – from Malthouse Theatre Season Brochure, 2012

While Henrik Ibsen’s drama is five acts set in two locations. Stone’s version is made up of 36 scenes in multiple locations. ‘The play follows the laws of theatre rather than fate. The individual characters’ stories are fully fleshed out in ways that Ibsen’s were not’, Stone says. ‘They are leading their own lives when they are drawn into the whirlpool of this tragedy’ – adapted from SMH, Feb 2011, by Elissa Blake

Welcome to the Prompt Pack for The Wild Duck.

When an actor forgets or loses a line in a play we

know they may need a prompt from someone who is

on the script, who can provide a line or a cue so the

actor can continue telling their story. This kit is aimed

at providing just that – a series of prompts or cues

that enable students to investigate and explore the

background to the production, and to continue telling

the story of The Wild Duck. Whether you are studying

Theatre Studies, Drama, English, Languages, Politics,

History, Psychology, Philosophy or Music, the kit invites

you to see how relevant and exciting contemporary

theatre can be. By the way, the kit is by no means

definitive and the ‘prompts’ throughout the kit provide

further references and activities. Who knows where you

might end up?

The online version of the Prompt Pack includes interviews with Simon Stone (Director of the Wild Duck), Carl Nilsson-Polias (Marketing), David Craig and David Miller (Production) and Van Badham (Associate Artist-Writing). You will find these links on our website malthousetheatre.com.au

Henrik Ibsen’s ‘The Wild Duck’ is a warning on the perils of truth-telling.

PROMPT – cue, induce, make, motivate, persuade, encourage,

stimulate, impel, inspire

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HISTORICAL CONTEXTS

So, I suppose I take my cue from Ibsen when I wrest ‘The Wild Duck’ free of its linear narrative and realistic locations – Simon Stone, Director

From the outset it’s important to note that this version of The Wild Duck is described as being ‘after Ibsen’. It is an adaptation. However, it’s worth spending some time exploring the contexts and intentions of the original play and its playwright, Henrik Ibsen. Why? Because something about Ibsen’s original play provided a reason for the artistic team to create an adaptation. Simon Stone suggests what this might be when he says that for him Ibsen’s plays are ‘dramas of fate and consequence. They present humanity in extremis’ (Director’s Notes, Belvoir). So back to the beginning…

HENRIK IBSEN IN BRIEF

Henrik Ibsen, (20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as “the father of prose drama” and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre. His major works include Brand, Peer Gynt, An Enemy of the People, Emperor and Galilean, A Doll’s House, Hedda Gabler, Ghosts, The Wild Duck, and Rosmersholm. He has been translated into many languages and been the source of much intellectual analysis and discussion. Read the following three passages which preface an English translation of three of his plays:

Ibsen was the first Norwegian of modern times to lead the world in any of the arts; he is one of the five greatest dramatists of history. He inherited the stern moral tradition of a race accustomed to hardship and in love with liberty, a race of deep integrity and of strenuous intellectual habit. His cultural heritage derived from the ancient and the modern world alike and, more immediately from nineteenth-century Europe.

The three plays chosen for this volume, The Pillars of the Community, The Wild Duck and Hedda Gabler, cover the whole of the period during which Ibsen was preoccupied with the problems of personal and social morality in the world immediately about him…He exposes in these…plays the effect of lies, shams and evasions, showing the tragedy and the degradation that accompany the forfeiting of integrity.

…[in The Wild Duck appears] Gregers Werle whose conception of truth is like an icy, fanatical wind from the frozen fjelds. Under his ministration the unfortunate Hjalmar Ekdal…makes shipwreck of his life and of those of his wife and child. It takes two to tell the truth; one to speak and one to hear.

— from Introduction to Penguin Classics Hedda Gabler & Other Plays, 1998, pp8-12

When Ibsen was a boy, his father, a prosperous business man, was forced to sell his large business and the family moved to their summer house in Skien. His déclassé (reduced status) background would have a strong influence on Ibsen’s later work; the characters in his plays often mirror his parents, and his themes often deal with issues of financial difficulty as well as moral conflicts stemming from dark secrets hidden from society. Ibsen would both model and name characters in his plays after

his own family. Ibsen lived in great poverty. As a teenager he took a job in an apothecary in a tiny seaport. At the age of 17, he had an illegitimate child with a servant girl. And at the age of 20 he wrote his first play, Catiline.

At the beginning of his career, Ibsen, who was a patriot and partisan of the 1848 revolutions, wrote verse dramas on themes from Norwegian history. Ibsen learned his stagecraft as an assistant manager of the Bergen and Oslo theatres, and also through his study of German and Italian theatre, two countries in which he lived for over twenty-five years. European and British theatre in the early to mid nineteenth century consisted mostly of ‘well made’ plays or those of romantic and tragic ideals including melodrama and vaudeville. Gathering the players in a semicircle around the prompter, was the usual practice in the 1850s, and this naturally disallowed more natural acting and resulted in the declamatory style. The following is a description of the type of theatre that could be seen on the stages of France during Ibsen’s beginnings as a playwright.

The true theatre of the time was still to be found in vaudeville and melodrama in the works of the prolific (playwright) Scribe, who during all the excesses of Romanticism continued imperturbably to turn out his ‘well-made; plays, which set a pattern for dramatists everywhere. Unlike the Romantics who made high tragedy of everyday happenings, Scribe excelled in bringing great historical events down to the back parlour The Theatre: A concise History (3rd Edition), 1998, pp182-183

In comparison, Ibsen had another vision for the theatre. His work examined the realities that lay behind social façades, revealing much that was uncomfortable for many contemporaries. Ibsen cast a critical eye on the conditions of life and issues of morality. To hold a lens up to society is not an easy thing and several of Ibsen’s plays were considered scandalous by audiences and critics of his time, a time when European theatre was expected to present work that modeled the strict social mores of family life.

In the 1870s Ibsen increasingly emphasized how important it was for the roles he wrote to be performed in a natural way. At the end of 1872 he pointed out to Harald Holst, a member the management of the Christiania Theater in Oslo, that “every scene and every picture ought as far as possible to be a reflection of reality”. There must be “equal truth to life on all counts”, as Ibsen wrote in the same letter.

Ibsen wrote his plays in Danish (there was no recognized Norwegian language until 1905) and they were published by the Danish publisher Gyldendal. Most of his plays are set in Norway, often in places reminiscent of Skien, the port town where he grew up. Ibsen is often ranked as one of the truly great playwrights in the European tradition. He strongly influenced other playwrights and novelists such as George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, and Eugene O’Neill.

Success came late to Henrik Ibsen. It was not until he was nearly forty that his first play Peer Gynt brought success. It is also worth noting that many of the finest roles that Ibsen wrote were for women such as Nora (A Doll’s House), Hedda (Hedda Gabler), and Mrs Alving (Ghosts).

ADAPTED FROM THE FOLLOWING SOURCES:

http://ibsen.net/ and article at http://ibsen.net/index.gan?id=1927&subid=0

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PROMPT

PROMPT

Theatre Studies: Discuss what the following terms mean: modernism, dramatic prose, real life on stage and how they may be applied to theatre practice.

Language: What is the significance of having a national language? Why would a country not have its own national language? What political and cultural factors may contribute?

Philosophy: How does a society arrive at a set of social mores? Who determines them? What is a moral conflict and how might it be resolved?

Geography: Where is the township of Skien located in Norway? What resources did or does it produce? What is the current significance to the Norwegian economy? In a time before globalisation how significant would local business and industry be?

PROMPT: If you are interested in reading Henrik Ibsen’s original script in English translation:

Entire translated text of the Ibsen version from the Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library

http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/IbsWild.html

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/i/ibsen/henrik/wild/

POLITICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL CONTEXT

When considering the context in which a play or other piece of literature is written, it is important to consider the greater thinking and philosophies of that time. Two distinct social and cultural movements influenced Ibsen in the writing of his plays. These two movements or paradigms were Idealism and the emergence of Modernism. Idealism was the dominant aesthetic paradigm of the nineteenth century. Below is one description of how you might understand Idealism:

The family as it really is, is a conventional arrangement, legally enforced, which the majority, because it happens to suit them, think is good enough for the minority, whom it happens not to suit at all. The family as a beautiful and holy natural institution is only a fancy picture of what every family would have to be if everybody was to be suited…we call this sort of fancy picture an Ideal; and the policy of forcing individuals to an act on the assumption that all ideals are real, and to recognize and accept such action as standard moral conduct…may therefore be described as the policy of Idealism

– George Bernard Shaw, The Quintessence of Ibsenism

Source: http://drama.eserver.org/criticism/sources-of-idealism.html

In this way Ibsen’s representations of families and communities in his plays broke down the idealistic façade. Modernism was born in the ruins of idealism challenging traditional theories:

In general, the term modernism encompasses the activities and output of those who felt the “traditional” forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organization and daily life were becoming outdated in the new economic, social, and political conditions of an emerging fully industrialized world – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernism

Modernism promoted skepticism, rejected concepts of certainty and rejected the existence of a compassionate, all-powerful Creator God. Instead artists and philosophers favoured the abstract and the unconventional. This rejection of certainty and God was largely brought on by modernity, initiated around the late 19th Century by rapidly changing technology. The uncertainty was further chrystalised by the horrific consequences of World War I.

By reading Ibsen’s plays as investigations of the fate of love in an age of skepticism, we can see why Ibsen still matters to us. Ibsen’s plays were profoundly concerned with theatricality, both on stage and in everyday life. Ibsen’s unsettling explorations of women, men and marriage demonstrate the tensions and tragedies that exist in the everyday

Ibsen’s drive to create naturalism on the stage was born out of the publishing of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species (1859) and the subsequent political and economic conditions that led to Modernist thinking. Naturalism as a theatrical movement found its main proponent in Émile Zola. His essay “Naturalism in the Theatre” (1881) argued that poetry is everywhere instead of in the past or abstraction: “There is more poetry in the little apartment of a bourgeois than in all the empty worm-eaten palaces of history.”

Watch an interview with Van Badham Associate Artist (Writing) here talking about historical context of Ibsen and Modernism.

Read more – source:

http://oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/LiteratureEnglish/WorldLiterature/Scandinavian/?view=usa&ci=9780199295876

Henrik Ibsen lived in a time shaped by enormous change and was born in a country that did not have its own language or national identity until towards the end of Ibsen’s own life. The era of Romantic Idealism was fading and handing over to Modernism and the industrial revolution had impacted strongly on people’s lives. Simultaneously, the world of art, music and theatre was changing to meet a new world view.

Choose one of the following topics and create a presentation to the class.

Relate the research and the presentation to why Ibsen wanted to write the plays he did

Romantic Idealism Edvard Grieg

Edvard Munch Early 19th Century Theatre

Darwinsim and Realism in Theatre The Evolution of the Species

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PROMPT

PROMPT

WHAT THE CRITICS HAVE SAID…

Below are some excerpts from a range of reviews of The Wild Duck when it was performed at Belvoir Street Theatre in Sydney, 2011

ON MEMORY AND THE EPIC NATURE OF TRAGEDY…

The collision between memory and plot is one of the most important foundations of storytelling in the theatre. There are two main methods – at least that I can think of – to create a sense of the epic in an audience watching a play, especially a tragedy. The first is through the manipulation of emotion – garnering empathy for the characters on stage, as well as the production of awe in an audience member. The second is through the manipulation of memory – plotting done in such a way as to give the illusion of a specific length of time. Manipulation of emotion adds feeling to a play. Manipulation of memory adds depth. The Wild Duck felt epic was because it was filled to the brim with important events – it didn’t matter that there was very little time between each of them (30+ scenes in less than 90 minutes, I think), it was the quantity and quality that mattered. What I was trying to argue for was that all of this concentration, this distillation, is possible, because of how our minds and memory works. We don’t think in time, we think in important events. In fact, we’re horrible, terrible, at thinking in terms of time. We think not in seconds, but in moments – extract from theatre blog, Epistemysics (Adam)

Read more: http://epistemysics.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/critique-the-wild-duck-part-two/

ABOUT THE DESIGN…

Part of this production’s power comes from the simplicity, even crudity, of its framing. Here the design is exemplary in how it contributes to the meaning of the performance, from Niklas Pajanti’s lighting to Stefan Gregory’s sound design, which mics the actors so we hear their bodies as much as see them: the labial sounds of kisses, a deep, shuddering, in-drawn breath. Ralph Myers’s set is a kind of terrarium or tank that seals the audience from the performers, a literal fourth wall which heightens the voyeuristic sense that we are transgressively peering into privacies. The window/mirror has almost become a cliche in contemporary theatre, but here the design, perhaps because it so aptly represents the play’s dynamics, is fresh and striking. At the top of the set are electronic displays, harking back to the scene titles in ‘Thyestes’, that introduce each scene with a specific time date and time – extract from Theatre Notes, Alison Croggan, March 2011

Read more: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com/2011/03/review-wild-duck.html

ON ACTING AND CHARACTER…

It’s because Stone has provided his actors with the room to act their guts out. Every character is honest, believable and human (apart from the one non-human character), and it’s an excellent ensemble: Eloise Mignon plays Hedvig with heart full to bursting; Toby Schmitz turns Gregers into a cool emotional arsonist still dealing with the baggage of his own life; John Gaden as Werle is the very picture of sexagenarian loneliness; and Anthony Phelan’s Ekdal is a bruised man (literally so, what with the duck trying to gnaw his middle finger off at a crucial moment). Ewen Leslie and Anita Hegh as Mr. and Mrs. Ekdal put in two particularly powerful performances. When they throw themselves headlong into the tempest, the physical barrier between actor and audience only accentuates their anguish – there really is no way out for them – extract from Time Out, Darren King, March 2011

Read more: http://au.timeout.com/sydney/theatre/events/21054/the-wild-duck

What type of information does each of the reviews give you about the play?

What questions do you have after reading each extract? What makes you curious?

How would you describe the type of language used in each review?

REVISIT these extracts after seeing the production and see which reviewers you agree and disagree with

Literature – Alternative viewpoints (you could find it useful to follow the links and read the full review on this one)

All three reviewers saw the same play (although not necessarily the same performance). What assumptions are these writers making about their audience? What type of language is being used to convey their opinion? How do you account for the differences in their description and analysis?

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PROMPTA PRODUCTION FOR TWO THEATRES

Watch an interview with David Craig (Workshop Manager) and David Miller (Production Manager) here. The Wild Duck was originally designed and created

for Belvoir Upstairs and has transferred to the Merlyn Theatre at the Malthouse. Belvoir is a fixed performance space while the Merlyn is a flexible studio space.

— Read from the excerpt of the technical specifications of the Merlin Theatre below

— Take a look at the cross section venue plan

— Draw the set plans for The Wild Duck from bird’s eye view and in cross section.

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SEATING OPTIONS & CAPACITIES

“The Merlyn Theatre is a large studio style space with seating on three levels. The theatre has an orchestra pit. In the Standard seating configuration there is seating in the pit.

The Merlyn has a capacity of up to 520 in the Standard seating configuration.

The decor in the Merlyn Theatre is black including the stage area. The seating is red with black fleck. The Merlyn Theatre is hired “bare walls” ie no standard masking, audio or lighting rigs, due to the flexible nature of the seating.

The Merlyn Theatre can be transferred into many different types of seating configurations, the cost of which shall be borne by the Hirer.

Level One seating is flexible, Level Two and Three have fixed balconies on three sides.

The following are some of the configurations and their approximate capacities. These do not take into account restricted viewing seats produced by the Hirer’s set/masking configuration.

End Stage Standard configuration,

including seating in the Orchestra Pit = 510

End Stage with pit covered = 414

In the Round = TBA

Traverse = 454

Corner “V” Configuration = 418

With a centre vomitory = 471

These figures include 88 seats on the First Balcony and 100 seats on the Second Balcony.”

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PROMPT

CONTEXTS & THE WORLD OF THE PLAY

Ibsen’s version of The Wild Duck was written in 1884 in Danish, set in a small town in Norway. This production has been adapted for a contemporary stage. Referring to the adaptation by Simon Stone and Chris Ryan:

— What is the world that these characters inhabit?

— Why do they have the original Norwegian names from Ibsen’s version?

— Where do they live, where do they work?

— Discuss this with reference to the script and the production – where are there clues?

— Is the world of the play deliberately ambiguous?

Watch an interview with Simon Stone here.

PLOT

Working individually and using dot points summarise the plot of The Wild Duck

— Compare your dot points with a partner or the class – what differences and similarities are there?

— Synthesise the different responses and arrive at an agreed synopsis of the play

Simon Stone says that as an audience We see one tragic week in the lives of six people. At what particular point does the audience enter the lives of the characters?

In the play key characters’ pasts or back stories materialise, so that the past drives the action of the plot

— Discuss your understanding of the terms – plot and back story

— Do you agree with the above statement?

— How is the past represented in the script?

— How is the past represented through the action on stage?

— Whose pasts?

PROMPT: ANALYSING THE WILD DUCK

The following questions and activities act as prompts for

thinking about the play. There is a focus on Theatre Studies,

especially with regard to Unit 3/Outcome 3, but other areas of the

curriculum are not left out.

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RECONTEXTUALISING

Why are the classics such a vital part of our theatrical culture…[because]…they’re substantial, robust and adaptable…they often amaze us with how familiar and suitable to the times they feel. – Eamon Flack Dramaturge.

This version of The Wild Duck is a radical re-contextualising of a classic text but with intent to maintain Ibsen’s essential premise of truth, lies and consequences.

— Listen to Simon Stone’s discussion about the links and threads from Ibsen’s original play he felt must be kept in this adaptation

— Compare and contrast who the characters have become in this new world.

— Does this re contextualising work? Where else and in what time could it be set?

STRUCTURE

“The advent of realism on the modern stage brought with it some misleading notions about tragedy. While the innovation of the early realist writers and directors was to move theatre away from palaces and battlefields and into the drawing room, to assume that they were presenting a realistic view of everyday life is misguided. Ibsen’s plays of this period are not examinations of the quotidian; they are dramas of fate and consequence. They present humanity in extremis. In A Doll’s House we do not see Nora’s life before Krogstad turns up to blackmail her, we do not see the happy early years of Ellida’s marriage to Dr. Wangel before the stranger arrives in The Lady from the Sea, nor do we see Solness’ long career as a successful and acclaimed architect in The Master Builder. We meet these characters in the days preceding the breakdown of their marriage, their hour of greatest weakness, or their death. Those theatre-goers of the late nineteenth-century who were well-versed in Ibsen’s oeuvre would have come to each new offering of his with a sense of foreboding, knowing that inevitably the author would have chosen these characters, this location, this time, with the express intention of examining a cataclysmic moment in their lives. His plays are an inquest into the darkest hours of human experience”.

Simon Stone (excerpt of program notes)

Director – Simon Stone, Designer – Ralph Myers, and Dramaturge – Eamon Flack all speak about the play even in its adaptation as being a tragedy.

— What are the generally recognised conventions of a tragedy?

— What type of structure does a tragedy usually have?

— Perhaps consider Antigone, Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear, The Summer of the 17th Doll, Death of a Salesman as possible examples of tragic plays

— What are the tragic elements in this production of The Wild Duck?

Structuring time – In this production the action takes place across seven days – Monday 8.59am to Sunday 10.59am, followed by a Coda – Monday 8.59am one year later.

— Why do you think the director has chosen to inform the audience of the time?

— What was the impact for you?

— Did it feel like time was passing?

— Did the timing and pace increase throughout the production?

— You might like to revisit the review from Epistemysics which explores time and memory.

Structured gaps – Ibsen’s original version of The Wild Duck used minor characters and detailed scenes to explain and set up the more tragic moments in the story. In this adaptation there are no minor characters to perform this function. Instead, a structural choice is to include dead blackouts (DBO) between each of the scenes. After each blackout we pick up the next scene or moment at a different point in time.

— Consider what might be happening in the gaps and blackouts, what might have been said, what action might have been played?

— How do the blackouts and gaps in the action impact on our IMAGINATION?

— You could return to the script and notate/script/imagine what you think was said or what action occurred in between the lit scenes.

— Write a short scene that you feel would fill a gap, read it or perform it and discuss which choice is more powerful, more theatrical.

Discuss the blackouts in terms of how they might have been directed for the actors, the dramaturgical reasons for them, and how they work visually as a design element.

In the second half or section of the play when some truths have been revealed there is a shift in the use of blackout, music and light.

— Why do you think these choices have been made?

— How do these choices impact on your experience of the play?

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PROMPT

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE SCRIPT AND THE PLAY IN PERFORMANCE

The director has made some very deliberate choices when realising the script for performance, in particular omitting one of the final scenes of the play – Sunday 10.59am.

— Discuss the choices to omit this scene. Do you agree with this choice?

— How does it work theatrically? How does it play with the audience’s emotions?

— Here you could consider the structure of the play and it relationship to the conventions of classical tragedies especially the Greeks.

— What then is the impact of the coda or final scene between Gina and Hjalmar?

— What other differences are there between the written script and the play in performance?

DRAMATIC TENSION

Revisit the interview with Simon Stone and listen to his discussion on SUBTEXT

The Wild Duck is a tragedy and the narrative builds towards the death of Hedvig.

— Consider the presence of dramatic tension in the play

— How does the use of music, the use of the clock or electronic time keeper, the use of blackout contribute to the dramatic tension in the play?

— How does dramatic tension build towards the death of Hedvig in the action on stage?

— Which scenes in particular do you think contain the most tension and why?

The subtext in the play is what is not said but rather what is meant or what is intended. Several of the scenes with Gregers have a deeper underlying meaning or intention.

— From the script select a scene with Gregers and Hjalver, or Hedvig, or with Gina

— What is the subtext that is suggested?

— Consider how the scene was played out in the production.

— How did subtext and dramatic tension work in this scene?

How does the DIRECTION contribute to the dramatic tension in the production? Some considerations here could be: the design of the space, the placement of the actors in the space, and their relationship to each other, how the actors are directed to deliver their lines – rhythm, pace, timing, pause, silence etc.

THEATRICAL STYLES

Here is an extract from the opening of Ibsen’s play:

[At Werle’s house. A study expensively and comfortably furnished, with bookcases and upholstered furniture, a writing-table with papers and documents in the middle of the room and lighted lamps with green shades….cont. Pettersen, Werles’ servant, in livery and Jensen, the hired waiter, in black, are putting the study straight]

— What does this extract from the original play (English translation) offer the Production Team and the Cast and Creative Team in terms of suggested theatrical styles?

Now let’s turn to the adaptation:

Opening of the Play: 8.59am, Werle, smoking. His phone rings Werle – Hello? 8.59am, Gregers is on his phone – Hi Dad, yeah I just got in (end of scene).

— What is offered to the Production Team and the Cast and Creative Team in terms of how to interpret the script to the stage?

— Generally, what does the language of the script suggest might be the overarching or predominant theatrical style of this production?

— What stage directions or other clues are there in this excerpt about the theatrical style?

One reviewer described the design as follows: Ralph Myers’ linear set breaks down the ‘fourth wall’ of theatrical convention – clear reflective glass and bare walls (reminiscent of an observation cage at a zoo) so that the characters are intimately observed, almost painfully so – extract from ArtsHub, Feb 2011

— Consider this description and discuss the convention of ‘the fourth wall’ in theatre

— Is the fourth wall broken down by the design or is it emphasised by the glass surround?

Ibsen said of his plays that …every scene and every picture ought as far as possible to be a reflection of reality. There must be equal in truth to life on all counts.

— Even though the actors in this production are working in a very bare and sparse landscape can the term NATURALISM still be applied to this production?

— What aspects reflect reality? What aspects are equal in truth to life?

— Consider the use of language, gesture, emotion, motivation, direction, truthfulness.

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We see a series of realistic moments in a very unrealistic setting – Simon Stone, Director.

Some aspects of this production could be considered abstract or non-naturalistic in style in that they are not realistically represented

— Discuss what elements of The Wild Duck might be abstract or non-naturalistic

— Here you might like to consider the ABSENCE of things

— Other things might be the use of METAPHOR or SYMBOL

— Language, gesture, sound, lighting, use of space, costume, props, design elements – these are all aspects to think about

ACTING AND CHARACTERISATION

There is a real sense of conversation in this production and at times the pacing and rhythm of the scenes means that the characters lines and dialogue overlap, particularly in the first ‘half’ of the play.

— How would you describe this style of delivery?

— What type of physicality accompanied this conversational feeling?

There are six (human) characters in this version of The Wild Duck. Choose two of the characters and create a very detailed profile that includes: age/gender/status, relationships to other characters, secrets they have, what motivates them at certain points within the story

— What are the STAKES for each of your chosen characters? What do they stand to lose or to gain?

— What is each of your chosen characters’ journey in the play? How do they change?

— How are we invited to feel about them?

— How does the final tragedy impact on them? Do we even know?

— Give specific examples here by referring to moments in the performance you saw

Now consider the use of EXPRESSIVE SKILLS and discuss how the ACTOR used these to interpret their character including – voice, gesture, facial expression, physicality, movement, stillness and silence, language.

THE DUCK – It’s either Henrik or Ibsen – they share the role!

It is impossible to ignore the live duck in this play. It is, after all, the featured title character.

— Discuss the role of the duck in the play and its significance

— Consider how it came to be in the house, who it belongs to, what it’s name is, how it is spoken about

— With this in mind consider the title of the play – The Wild Duck – and how this resonates across the play. Who else might be a ‘wild duck’?

— How did you react to seeing a live duck in the space?

— At the performance you attended were there particular duck-like behaviours that you really enjoyed? Did the duck pull focus?

SET DESIGN

Ekdal lives in a tiny cramped flat with his son Hjalmar, daughter-in-law Gina (Anita Hegh), granddaughter Hedvig (Eloise Mignon) and Lucky the duck – extract from review on ArtsHub, February 2011,

— Read the above description of the setting from the review on ArtsHub. Is this where you imagined the Ekdals live?

— What in the script suggests this?

— Is this description referenced in the stage directions or use of stagecraft?

Simon Stone and I have created for this production a glass box for the observation of the behaviour of a group of animals. We have deliberately created a separation between the audience and the stage, we have erected a transparent fourth wall

– Ralph Myers

— Discuss the above comment. Did you feel like a ‘voyeur’ looking in on people’s behaviour?

— Are we used to this as part of the ‘reality TV’ culture?

— In particular consider the ACTOR/AUDIENCE relationship in relation to the set design.

— Analyse how the specificity of this design impacted on that relationship in terms or intimacy, distance, empathy, sympathy, sight lines etc.

We see one tragic week in the lives of six people. The events of the story take place in a void space, everywhere and nowhere – Simon Stone

— What is your understanding of the term ‘void’?

— How does the design for this production represent both everywhere and nowhere?

— Did you endow it with different ‘somewheres’ as you watched and listened? What were these?

The final scene in the production is enacted outside the glass wall and takes place one year after the previous scene.

— Why do you think the director chose to do this?

— How does this choice work symbolically within the context of the play? For example what additional meaning does this give the space behind the glass wall?

— Did this scene surprise you?

His theatre was like looking into a terrarium or an ant-farm – Designer Ralph Myers commenting on Ibsen’s plays.

— How does the set design reflect the ideas of being a terrarium or ant-farm?

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SOUND AND MUSIC

JS BACH VIOLIN SONATA NO 1 BWV 1001 BERLIOZ’S REQUIEM

Why those were chosen is a far more difficult question. The short answer is because they work.

There is a deliberate contrasting of musical styles through the production to highlight emotional paradigm shifts; from solo violin, to noise rock, to orchestral/choral

– STEFAN GREGORY, Sound Designer

— Discuss the use of music in the production.

— How did you respond to the use of different styles of music? Did it ‘work’ for you? Why?

— How did the music create ‘emotional paradigm shifts’? What are these anyway?

Recall the scene where Gina and Hjalmar kiss and consider trying to reconcile. There is a gun shot. The audience is then engulfed by two juxtaposing pieces of music, one jarring, the other quite epic in nature.

— Discuss why you think these (deliberate) choices were made and how they contributed to the mood or tone of the scene, or even introduced the next scene

The actors all wear head microphones to amplify their voices from within the glass wall.

— What effect did this create?

— Consider how the use of microphones may have impacted on the following – use of voice, movement, directorial decisions?

— What might be some technical considerations and possible problems in regard this type of sound design?

LIGHTING

The lighting for the production is quite specific. The actors are behind reflective glass and cannot see the audience. The audience can ‘see in’.

— How does the use of lighting reflect the following descriptions of the overall world of the play – a void, a sense of voyeurism, a terrarium, an ant-farm?

— Does the lighting respond to or enhance other stagecraft elements eg. the music or sound?

The time surtitles – these glare at the audience from the dark as a part of the set and a lighting choice and other representations you may have considered

— Discuss the effect of these as aspects of both set and lighting design

— How do they act symbolically in the production?

COSTUME AND PROPS

Simon Stone’s approach to the story is one of paring back the detail. In considering this

— How does costume work in this production?

— How does it assist in enhancing the theatrical styles of naturalism/realism and the contemporary or non-naturalism?

— How does costume act to enhance each character? For example the luxurious bathrobe of Greger’s father? The school uniform for Hedvig? The crumpled costume of Ekdal?

— How does the simplicity of costume assist in re-focusing the audience on the story/meaning of the play?

Consider the use of properties in the play. These are quite specific: school bags, suitcases, laptops, mobile phone, the duck’s bath, a tree, glasses of beer etc.

— Consider why these props were chosen

— How do they work as practical and functional parts of the characters’ lives?

— How do they work metaphorically or symbolically?

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PROMPT

PROMPTTHEMES AND IDEAS EXLORED IN THE WILD DUCK

We all see different things in a theatre performance. This section of the Prompt Kit is about exploring the themes and ideas in the play from a number of perspectives. To begin the discussion, here are a couple of examples from theatre critics/reviewers who saw or read the following in the production:

The sinews of Ibsen’s obsessions – the past that haunts and destroys the present, inheritance and paternity, the social critique of class and gender, the plutonium-enriched explosion of truth – are boldly translated into present day forms – Alison Croggan, Theatre Notes

From the 21st-century perspective of often fleeting and fragmented relationships, core and non-core promises and generally slippery attitudes towards truth (what is it, after all?), this “new” play is a disturbingly luminous and moving interlude in emotionally dark times – The Australian

What do these two opinions conjure up? Is this what you saw or understood?

It is always useful to look at the playwright’s INTENTION when exploring themes. Why did they write the play? What do they want to say? This adaptation by the Writer/Director, Simon Stone, has focused on TRUTH; hiding the truth, telling the truth, why we lie in the first place, the consequences of both. The following extracts from the script explore these ideas.

HJALMAR She didn’t lie to you.

EKDAL If Gina had told you the truth would you have stayed with her?

HJALMAR I don’t know. But she didn’t give me the choice.

EKDAL: Everyone’s got a story like this Hjalmar. It’s as old as the hills.

GREGERS I think people deserve to know the truth.

HEDVIG Is that like a blanket rule of yours?

GREGERS It is actually.

HEDVIG I think the truth can be pretty embarrassing sometimes.

GREGERS All the more reason to share it with someone

EKDAL Sure was. Year ten. The Tempest. I played Miranda.

HEDVIG I’m sure you were terrible.

EKDAL Why do you say that?

HEDVIG I can always tell when you’re lying.

EKDAL How do you know those aren’t decoy lies?

HEDVIG Decoy lies?

EKDAL Bad lies that make you think you know when I’m lying so I get away with much more sinister lies.

How does each of these extracts explore the idea or theme of TRUTH and LIES?

Is it okay to lie? When? Why do people lie?

How does the play demonstrate that telling the truth can be an act of destruction?

What motivates Gregers to tell the truth to Hjalmar about Gina? Is he right? Should he have spoken up? After he does, what is his role in the story? Does he bear witness to the result of his ‘truth telling’?

Other themes and ideas you could consider in the production are those of:

— Love

— Adultery

— Suicide

— Grief

— Guns and weapons

Consider the scene where Ekdal teaches Hedvig how to shoot a rifle. It is quite detailed and specific.

— Now that you have seen the production, what does this scene illuminate or highlight for you?

— Does the play comment on guns or gun control?

— Does it foreshadow what is to come? Or can this only be said in retrospect?

When Hjalmar returns to collect some things it is obvious that that both he and Gina still love each other.

— What is the play saying about love?

— Can love exist amidst tragedy?

— What other aspects of the play are about love?

— Do people lie for love? Tell the truth for love? Die for love?

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Adaptor/director Simon Stone has put this single tragic event at the centre of his production. “I’m looking at the same characters and actions from a different point of view,” he says. “I wanted to propose exactly the opposite [of Ibsen]: suicide is an enigmatic, confusing, awful, tragic thing that happens that we will never be able to understand – and therefore we can’t actually blame anyone.

— Why does Hedvig commit suicide?

— Do you agree with Simon Stone’s comment about it being enigmatic, awful, tragic?

— How does the final scene between her parents provide hope?

At what point in the script does Gregers realise the adulterous link between his father and Gina?

— How is this realised on stage?

— Consider the scene with his father, the directorial choices, the rhythm of the scene.

Hjalmar’s father remains loyal to Werle despite his taking the rap for dodgy corporate behaviour

— How significant is this theme or concept within the play?

— How else is loyalty explored?

In the coda or final scene of the production, it is one year later, on the birthday of Hedvig.

— How is grief and loss explored in this scene between Gina and Hjalmar?

— Do you have a sense of hope from this scene?

— Discuss why the writers may have only given us these two characters’ perspectives on grief and loss.

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PROMPT

The Wild Duck – Script exploration

What follows are two sets of script comparison/exploration. Each scene is presented twice; once as a direct translation of Ibsen’s original script, the other from Simon Stone’s adaptation.

Some suggested activities are:

LANGUAGE AND MEANING

— Discuss and analyse what you believe is the meaning of each scene

— Does the adaptation of the language alter the meaning? Why?

ACTING AND CHARACTERIZATION

— Select one of the scenes

— Focusing on the characters, read, rehearse and prepare a presentation

— How does the language affect the characterization? Does it impact on acting?

DIRECTING AND DESIGN

— Select one of the scenes

— Prepare a theatrical brief from the director’s point of view – how would you direct each of these scenes, drawing your ideas from your understanding of both plays and research

— Prepare a theatrical brief from a costume designer’s point of view – costume each scene drawing your ideas from what you understand of both plays and your research

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EXCERPT ONE

IBSEN’S TEXT (Penguin Classics ‘Hedda Gabler & Other Plays’ 1981)

ACT FOUR

HJALMAR: Is it true, can it be true, that there was something between you and old Mr. Werle, when you were in service there?

GINA: It’s not true, not then, there wasn’t. Mr Werle tried to get me to; true enough. And his wife thought there was something in it, and made no end of fuss and bothered. She led me a life, she did! And so I gave notice.

HJALMAR: But afterwards?

GINA: Well, then I went home. And Mother – she wasn’t as straight as you thought her Hjalmar. And she got talking at me, one thing and another. Because Werle was a widower then.

HJALMAR: Well, and then?

GINA: Well it’s best you should know it. He never gave up till he had his way.

HJALMAR: And that is my child’s mother! How could you hide a thing like that from me?

GINA: Yes, it was wrong of me; I suppose I ought o have told you long ago.

HJALMAR: You ought to have told me in the beginning; then I should have known what kind of woman you were.

GINA: But would you have married me, all the same?

HJALMAR: How can you imagine such a thing!

GINA: No…and that’s why did didn’t dare tell you anything then. Because I got very fond of you, as you know…

SIMON STONE/CHRIS RYAN – ADAPTATION

9.45PM – (P43 – P46)

GINA I feel sick. I can’t. Pause. I can’t.

HJALMAR Just tell me.

GINA We’re happy now aren’t we?

HJALMAR Are we?

GINA We are. We’re happy.

HJALMAR Gina.

GINA It was eighteen years ago. Pause. No. I can’t. I can’t. I’m going to vomit.

HJALMAR Did you sleep with him?

GINA Don’t do this.

HJALMAR Did you sleep with him?

GINA Why does it matter?

HJALMAR Answer the question Gina.

Pause.

GINA Yes.

Pause.

HJALMAR Before you met me?

GINA Yes.

HJALMAR Then why didn’t you tell me?

GINA I didn’t think it mattered.

HJALMAR Why would you think that?

GINA You haven’t told me everything about your past.

HJALMAR I have actually. Pause.

When Gregers told me, I thought he must be mistaken because we’ve always been so honest with each other. I thought we’d always been very honest with each other.

GINA We have been.

HJALMAR It was embarrassing. Not to know a detail about my wife’s past. To be told by someone else.

GINA I’m sorry.

HJALMAR And then when he told me about his mother’s suicide. How she called him and told him about the two of you before she did it.

GINA She wasn’t well at the time. She was paranoid. She knew that we’d been together while I was working at their house.

HJALMAR And that’s when Werle moved you on to the cleaning job?

GINA Yes.

HJALMAR And that’s when we met?

GINA Yes.

HJALMAR And you didn’t see Werle again?

No answer.

Gina?

No answer.

Jesus.

Pause.

When?

GINA While you were away.

HJALMAR Right.

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GINA I was in love with him.

HJALMAR Right.

GINA I hadn’t had a chance to finish it with him.

HJALMAR What do you mean?

GINA There wasn’t any resolution. He ended it as soon as his wife found out. I didn’t even have a chance to see him.

HJALMAR But weren’t you in love with me?

No answer.

Gina?

GINA Not really.

HJALMAR Not really?

GINA No.

HJALMAR Fucking hell.

GINA I’m sorry.

Pause.

I’m in love with you now.

SCRIPT COMPARISION – EXCERPT TWO

IBSEN’S TEXT IBSEN’S TEXT (Penguin Classics ‘Hedda Gabler & Other Plays’ 1981)

ACT FOUR – (P234 – P235)

HJALMAR: Gregers I have no child!

HEVIG: What are you saying? Daddy, Daddy!

GINA: There now!

HJALMAR: Don’t come near me Hedvig! Go away! Right away! I can’t bear to look at you. Ah, the eyes! Goodbye!

HEDVIG: No, No! Don’t go away from me!

GINA: Look at the child, Hjalmar! Look at the child!

HJALMA: I won’t, I can’t I must get out away from all this!

HEDVIG: He’s going away from us Mother! He’s going away from us! He’ll never come back again.

GINA: Don’t cry, now Hedvig. Father will come back again

HEDVIG: No, no, he’ll never come back to us again

SIMON STONE/CHRIS RYAN – ADAPTATION

SUNDAY 10.48AM – (P73 – P74)

HEDVIG Are you coming back?

HJALMAR I don’t think so.

HEDVIG Can’t you pretend you never found out?

HJALMAR No.

HEDVIG I’m your daughter.

HJALMAR No you’re not.

HEDVIG I am. You brought me up. My biology teacher said that at least sixty percent of personality is environmental.

HJALMAR No. You’re his daughter. You should be glad. He’s very successful. He’s rich. He’ll make sure you have a good life.

HEDVIG I don’t want to be anyone else’s daughter.

HJALMAR You don’t have a choice.

HEDVIG I just want our family back together again.

HJALMAR It’ll be okay. Your mum will look after you.

HEDVIG No. Not mum. You.

HJALMAR I’m sorry.

HEDVIG Why can’t you just pretend?

HJALMAR I’m sick of pretending.

HEDVIG No.

HJALMAR I have to go.

HEDVIG No. Please. Don’t.

HJALMAR Let go of me.

HEDVIG Please, Dad.

HJALMAR Let go of me. I have to go.

HEDVIG Dad, I’m begging you.

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SAMPLE ESSAY QUESTIONS – THEATRE STUDIES

Use your discussion, exploration and analysis of the play to give one of these essay questions a go. Remember to examples from both the script and the performance because that’s what you will need to do in your exam.

1. Discuss how the contemporary contexts evident in the playscript were interpreted in the performance you saw.

2. Discuss two similarities between the written script and the play in performance AND discuss two differences between the written playscript and the play in performance

3. Analyse how the theatrical styles implied in the playscript were interpreted in the performance you saw eg. naturalism and tragedy

4. Analyse ways in which two areas of stagecraft – directing, sound, lighting, or set – were used to interpret the playscript in the performance

5. Analyse one or more directorial decisions that were used in order to interpret the written playscript for performance.

REFERENCES:

ArtsHub – http://artshub.com.au/au/news-article/reviews/performing-arts/the-wild-duck-183319

Belvoir St Theatre, The Wild Duck Program Notes

Epistemysics (Adam) – http://twitter.com/epistemysics

Hartnoll, P (1998) The Theatre: A Concise History, Thames & Hudson, UK

Henrik Ibsen, Hedda Gabler & other Plays, Translated by Una Ellis-Fermor, Penguin Classics (1981), UK

Henrik Ibsen site including biography and articles about http://ibsen.net/

Sydney Morning Herald – http://smh.com.au/entertainment/theatre/the-wild-duck-20110217-1ay3o.html

Theatre Notes Blogspot – http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com.au/2011/03/review-wild-duck.html

Youtube – Trailer for The Wild Duck:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TOLPEHrGC0s

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Please use the following headings as a basis for responding to the key ideas, themes and theatrical styles within The Wild Duck

CHARACTERISATION:

Expressive skills – voice, gesture, movement, use of space, facial expression etc

THEMES:

THEATRE STUDIES: NOTES SHEET

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THEATRICAL CONVENTIONS:

DRAMATIC ELEMENTS:

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STAGECRAFT:

malthousetheatre.com.au