“The play is an absolute barn burner. Weird and ferocious, very funny and brutally tragic, somehow both sardonic and mysterious, melodramatic yet deeply moving. It’s a thrill to see The Wild Duck spread its wings.” —Sara Holdren, New York Magazine
Read more from New York Magazine here.
“The production, directed with a fine precision by Simon Godwin, rises to a wrenching climax, illuminating Ibsen’s potent, poetic drama about the dangers of stripping away life-sustaining beliefs—or illusions—in the pursuit of upholding a rigid morality.” —Charles Isherwood, The Wall Street Journal
Read more from The Wall Street Journal here.
“It’s the most honest of Ibsen’s plays…The great theatrical advocate of wisdom-through-argument
admits that argument itself has treacherous ramifications.” —Helen Shaw, The New Yorker
Read more from The New Yorker here.
“The excellent cast makes The Wild Duck as emotionally involving as it is intellectually intriguing.” —Kenji Fujishima, TheaterMania
Read more from TheaterMania here.
★★★★ “Simon Godwin directs a first-rate cast…with insightful aplomb—not a weak link among them in a welcome, possibly once-in-a-lifetime revival.” —David Finkle, New York Stage Review
Read more from New York Stage Review here.
“It’s very much a play for today…Its singular weave of farce and tragedy [is] a thrill to see in a first-class production…Godwin builds the action to a climax likely to haunt you for days.” —David Barbour, Lighting&Sound America
Read more from Lighting&Sound America here.
★★★★★“Perfection…A triumphant theatrical revival…The cast is remarkable…Beautifully adapted by David Eldridge and seamlessly directed by Godwin…They have created a true ensemble that makes for great theater.” —Holli Harms, Front Row Center
Read more from Front Row Center here.
“Ibsen’s ‘The Wild Duck,’ at TFNA, assesses the damage wrought by one man’s battle against the illusions people live by. O’Neill would pursue this theme in ‘The Iceman Cometh.’ But as Simon Godwin’s welcome revival reminds us, Ibsen got there first, in singular tragicomic style.” —Ben Brantley on X
“Breathtaking…Godwin carefully builds the outrage and the tension…The whole production feels like a small crack in a pane of glass. Once the fracturing begins it cannot be stopped. All we can do is watch until it shatters.” —Nicole Serratore, Exeunt
Read more from Exeunt here.
“One of [Ibsen’s] most harrowing works, considers the dangers of pursuing the truth at any cost…This staging…underlines both the tragic foundation and the comic flourishes in The Wild Duck, which dramatist David Eldridge has mined with an emphasis on clarity and accessibility.” —Elysa Gardner, The New York Sun
Read more from The New York Sun here.
The Wild Duck runs through September 28 at Polonsky Shakespeare Center.