Concentrating The Wild Duck in both form and space gives new lustre to Ibsen’s classic. Here the space is limited for everything but the excellent acting. The stripped-down bathroom where the drama now takes place exposes not only the lies of life but also our most intimate bodily needs. Gregers Werle’s eagerness to purify the escapist Ekdal family is expressed quite literally here. Rarely has the need for a room of one’s own appeared greater.

– Motivation of the selection jury

Emil Graffman directs one of Ibsen’s most beloved plays, The Wild Duck. About a family whose happiness is torn apart by a passionate truth-teller. Should you really take the lie of life from a person?

At the Ekdal family home, life goes on as it should. The fact that things didn’t turn out as they hoped and dreamed is something the family avoids thinking about. Instead, they escape to spend time with their pet, a wounded wild duck.

Together they live a happy life, not without problems, but full of love. Everything suddenly changes when a friend from the past comes to visit. Where others see happiness, the friend sees falsehood. For him, the wild duck becomes a symbol of the family trapped in an illusion and he makes it his duty to make them see the truth. But truth is a harsh weapon and sometimes it hits the wrong way.

By Henrik Ibsen
Translation Klas Östergren
Editing Lucas Svensson, Emil Graffman
Direction & set design Emil Graffman
Participants Victoria Dyrstad, Johan Friberg, Mia Höglund-Melin, Benjamin Moliner, Robin
Stegmar, Lars Väringer,
Extra participants Embla Ingelman-Sundberg m.fl.
Lighting Tobias Hagström-Ståhl
Composer Fredrik Möller
Costume Matilda Hyttsten
Mask Maria Agaton
Sound Marcus Lilja
Dramaturgy Sisela Lindblom
Publisher Colombine

Read more about the production here

Back to all selected productions