Slow-Cooked But Delicious: The Wild Duck At The Almeida Theatre

The Wild Duck, Almeida Theatre ★★★★☆

By Johnny Fox Last edited 65 months ago

Looks like this article is a bit old. Be aware that information may have changed since it was published.

Slow-Cooked But Delicious: The Wild Duck At The Almeida Theatre The Wild Duck, Almeida Theatre 4
The Wild Duck, Almeida Theatre. Photo: Manuel Harlan

Robert Icke clearly hopes to reinvigorate Ibsen the way he did for Shakespeare with the exceptional Andrew Scott Hamlet.  His conversational, documentary production of The Wild Duck makes this complex morality play immediately accessible, starting with Kevin Harvey’s Gregers, a man of almost irritatingly attractiveness and open likability.

The Wild Duck, Almeida Theatre. Photo: Manuel Harlan

Harvey’s amiable lecturing seduces us into sympathy for the downtrodden Ekdal family, financially supported by his own father whose corruption and patriarchal immortalities include possibly impregnating Gina Ekdal, a role given new weight and agency in an excellent performance by Lyndsey Marshal.

The Wild Duck, Almeida Theatre. Photo: Manuel Harlan

In a really strong cast, special mentions go to Nicholas Farrell as ‘Old’ Ekdal processing complex injustices, alcoholism and pain, and Edward Hogg’s nervily insecure James Ekdal moving anxiously and jokily from fond father to Angry Young Man.

The Wild Duck is about truth, and whether or not demanding honesty improves or wrecks the lives it affects. Icke’s method is to build the tensions really steadily and at nearly three hours, this is a slow-roasted duck.  

The Wild Duck, Almeida Theatre. Photo: Manuel Harlan

But hang in there: after the interval everything changes — including a breathtaking reveal in Bunny Christie’s initially stark set — when the pieces of the on stage puzzle fit together in a truly electric conclusion.

Slow cooked, but, mmm, delicious.

The Wild Duck,  Almeida Theatre, Almeida Street, N1.  Tickets £10-39.50, until 1 December 2018.

Last Updated 24 October 2018