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| The Bay Net Photo by Mandy Echoff |
Over the weekend students at St. Mary’s College were busy preparing for the opening of their new play, The Wild Duck, which opens today. Even those with no sewing experience were invited to join in finishing the costumes for the 19th Century period production. The Bay Net’s Mandy Echoff caught up with two members of the campus community to find out more about the rarely performed play and the garbs the actors will be wearing to bring Ibsen’s characters to life. You can listen to what those members of the theatre had to say in the video interview above.
Henrik Ibsen is best known for his (then) shocking play, A Doll’s House, and also for his influencing theatre with his “Realism.” The Wild Duck was written in 1884, and is considered one of Ibsen’s greatest plays, despite being lesser known and performed. It centers on a family, and a son who, returning after seventeen years, gradually begins to uncover some unpleasant parts of his father’s character.
“It is a play about family; a family deep in crisis. Certain ideological and moral absolutes may, in some rare cases, be worth striving for,” the play’s director Michael Ellis-Tolaydo says. “But in a diverse and multicultural world such as ours today, absolutes can lead to disaster. What could be more appropriate than a play that examines the consequences of intolerance and extremism?”
George Bernard Shaw described The Wild Duck as combining “the profoundest tragedy with irresistible comedy.”
The Wild Duck opens today, Wednesday December 6 at 8 p.m. at the Bruce Davis Theater in Montgomery Hall Fine Arts Center on the St. Mary’s College of Maryland (SMCM) campus. Performances continue through Dec. 10. Ticket prices are $4 or $6.