“Le Canard Sauvage” Review

“Le Canard Sauvage”, a play by the Norwegian 19^th century playwright Henrik Ibsen, revolves around the family of photographer Hjamlar Ekdal, who lives with his wife Gina and his 14-year-old daughter Hedvig in an apartment, which is not only the living space but also Hjalmar’s photography studio.  The family lives together with Ekdal’s father.

Over the course of the play, a number of revelations gradually unhinge the initially happy and satisfied Ekdal family. Gregers Werle, for whose father Gina used to work, plays an important part in the announcement of these far reaching revelations. Up until the point that Gregers revealed the many secrets lying behind the Ekdal family, each member has some kind of dream world in which he/she lives. In fact, Hjalmar believes himself to be a great inventor, his father goes hunting in an imaginary forest and Hedvig is very much focused on a wounded wild duck living in the attic in the same imaginary forest.

However, once Werle tells Hjalmar what he thinks the photographer ought to know, the situation in the family rapidly changes. For instance, he reveals to Hjamlar that Gina used to work for the old Werle as a servant. Doubts about Hedvig really being his daughter begin to appear, since Hjalmar severely questions the relationship Gina and the old Werle had. The fact that Hedvig is slowly losing eyesight combined with the old Werle’s eyesight getting increasingly worse intensify Hjalmar’s suspicion even further. The relationship between Hjalmar and Hedvig suffers a great deal under the suspicion. Hedvig, who is totally aware of the fact that her father rejects her cannot handle the situation and eventually shoots herself. This is the culminating point of the story. It remains unclear whether Hedvig really is not Hjalmar’s daughter.

 Yves Beaunesne’s staging of “Le Canard Sauvage” manages quite successfully to display the disintegration of the Ekdal family. The family under stress, which under internal and external pressure begins to disintegrate, is not only in “Le Canard Sauvage” but also in many other Ibsen plays a major theme.  In fact, as already mentioned, the Ekdal family is first introduced as happy and comfortable. The succession of events, described above, leading to the disintegration is well presented to the audience. The acting first and foremost is why the disintegration of the family is so convincingly conveyed to the audience.

 This performance of “Le Canard Sauvage” certainly stands out for its sophisticated and beautiful lighting. One interesting aspect is that Hedvig, at one point, sets up her own lighting while acting, the lighting was integrated into the performance on stage. The lighting however, while being quite beautiful and rather stunning, is a little bit too sophisticated for a naturalistic piece of theatre. A less lavish use of light would’ve maybe been closer to a naturalistic performance. 

Sound wise, the performance presented a few interesting characteristics. Sound effects, for instance, are used when a character enters the attic. While the effect in this particular case is quite strongly enhanced, it does not seem over-the-top, in contrast to part of the lighting. The effect sounds real and naturalistic. Another interesting aspect of the sound part of this play is Hjalmar’s flute performance on stage. This is the only time music is being played in this performance. This performance also incorporates recorded sounds, such as bird sounds, and especially duck sounds used when the “Wild Duck”, which is not actually visible on stage, is in some way being mentioned. Apart from that, no other recorded sounds are being used (or if so, in a very subtle way).

 Finally, let’s have a closer look at the acting. One character (or better, one actor) staging an impressive performance was the actress playing Hjalmar’s 14-year-old daughter, Hedvig. She’s very energetic on stage and has a huge presence. Until the point that she recognizes that her father doesn’t want to have anything to do with her, she’s jumping around a lot and always full of excitement. However, the “active side” of Hedvig is not being played too strongly. The actress plays her in a way that the audience accepts her as a realistic, joyful and active young girl very much attached to her father. One either likes Hedvig as a character or not, but the acting itself is great. A single point of critique regarding Hedvig might be that she sometimes comes across as a girl younger than 14. The actress simply plays Hedvig too young. However, that does not diminish the quality of the acting and is not relevant for those who have not read the actual play.  

The actor playing Hjalmar is remarkable for the way he presents the emotional transformation happening with Hjalmar. The photographer gradually turns from an ambitious and optimistic father into a sad angry, depressed and disappointed personality. From the way he moves, speaks, looks and behaves with others, the audience clearly senses this transformation, which is staged once again stages in a naturalistic way close to reality. In general, the overall acting of the cast was good and the actors matched the characters they we’re playing.

 Even though “Le Canard Sauvage” is a sad family drama, the play does not lack humor. If intended by Ibsen or not, some characters, like Molvik (a former student of theology) are simply comic, and the audience reacted with several laughers. Also, the play and this performance always managed to keep the tension high. It was overall a great production and a pleasure to watch. 

“The Waves”: Behind the scenes

Our theatre class got to talk with the actors and producers of “The Waves”. Here’s what a thought was interesting and wrote down:

• the actors don’t have to learn their lines
• they have to learn lots of different stuff (filming, producing sound effects, tap dancing)
• the actors found this production fascinating to be involved with, because they do things they’ve never done before
• very complex for the audience and the actors
• the cast always tries to stay true to what the video artist developed
• recorded as well as live sound effects are used
• 780 props (of course, props are very important in this production)
• the props also have to match the time the play is set in
• the props have to be at the exact same spot every time (important for the actors)
• even the slightest change can confuse the actors
• the actors have to be aware during the whole play
• it took 8 weeks to make the show, whereas it  normally takes 4 (practicing + developing concepts)
• the actors found the performance to be not stressful but exciting
• the play is very much about group performance

“The Waves” by Virginia Woolf: Impressions

• No real plot
• a lot of things going on on stage, so it’s hard to follow everything; the action on stage is simply overwhelming
• Play includes acting, filming, sounds, lighting, sounds, narrating (all done by the actors)
• play starts off more like a radio play, then evolves into cinematographic action

From Stanislawsky to Brecht to Boal

“The Natural Daughter” Review

The Natural Daughter is a play by J.W. Goethe, performed by the New World Theatre Club. John Brigg directs it.

One of the interesting aspects of this theatre adaptation of Goethe’s “The Natural Daughter” is the way the audience is included in the play. In fact, the audience does not only sit in front of the stage but also to the right and left of it. The spectators hence feel more involved in the play.  In addition to that, the audience sits really close the stage, which further intensifies the spectators’ feeling of being more involved in the play. The fact that the audience is so close the to performance on stage also makes it easier for the spectators to observe the feelings and emotions the actors try to represent on stage. The whole theater experience simply seems more realistic, which in return makes the play more interesting than it would’ve been on a “regular” stage.

Another interesting aspect of this performance was the good acting of the whole cast. The main actors in particular really impressed me with amazing acting, especially considering the fact that this play includes relatively long monologues and quite a bit of emotion. The good acting, combined with the audience’s proximity to the stage made this performance really interesting to watch.

 On the downside however, towards the end of the play, the performance does not really manage to keep the audience’s full attention. This is mainly because of the longer dialogues at the end and the lack of action on stage. The end really could’ve been more captivating, despite its content presenting less action than the acts before.

 Nevertheless, it was a good performance with an interesting stage concept and amazing actors.

Saying sentences via different characters

“Focus Walking”

“The Bubble”

Greek Theatre Stages vs. Modern Theatre Stages

Developing a Theatre Character: Part 3

In my previous post, I tried to describe the character I was supposed to develop. In the future, I’ll probably do more of those scans, just because I think it makes the whole thing more interesting. I hope that my handwriting is not too bad. In any case, I kinda pictured the character I developed and simply wrote my thoughts down. The next day in our theatre class, everyone presented their character. We then had to take a chair and imagine our character, according to our descriptions, sitting on this chair. We walked around the empty chair and had to figure out the way our character is sitting on the chair, the way his or her face looks, the way his gestures look like. All this should help us develop our character even further. And I have to say, it worked, but it was not an easy task. Picturing someone, who only exists in your imagination, sitting on an empty chair really requires you to to be focused and concentrated. After a while, you start to “see” your character clearer and clearer. It’s an effective but also relatively difficult exercise.

The next step was a discussion between one character at a time and the class. I, for example, being the grandfather sat on the chair in front of the group and had to answer questions I was asked by the other ones. Important of course is, that I try to incorporate “my” character in the best way possible and while I’m talking, try to even further develop “the grandfather”. It honestly was kind of weird in the beginning, but it gradually became more fun. It also helped me develop my charcter.

Both exercises, the “walking around the chair” and the interview were pretty helpful and definitely made the character of the grandfather clearer to myself.