STAGE AND SCREEN The Theatre
"The Wild Duck." By Henrik Ibsen. At the Westminster The Wild Duck will never date, for its theme will never lose its relevance—there will never come a time when unpractical, idealistic interference will not occur to induce tragedy and destroy the happiness of the innocent. And apart from the relevance of its theme, it will never lose the power to move us when it is presented on the stage, because of the per- fection of its author's dramatic technique and because of his incalculable insight into the motives and contradictions of human conduct. It remains the best play to be seen whenever and wherever it is competently produced, and will always so remain in the future until someone writes a better, which no one has done in the fifty years since it was written. One serious flaw, Mr. Alan Napier's perform- ance as Hjalmar, prevents this production from being as good as one could wish. Hjalmar is no doubt a parody of a man, but it is not necessary, as Mr. Napier seems to think it is, to parody his part : in his hands the superb character which Ibsen created in this opinionated, humourless, blundering romantic becomes the impersonation of a self-conscious buffoon, ridiculous where he should be comic, whimsical where he should be pathetic. But the other parts are all admirably played. Mr. Cecil Trouncer is an excellent Ekdal, Miss Ruth Wynn Owen is exemplarily simple as the child Hedvig, and Mr. Mark Dignam, astonishingly correct even in appearance, could be taken as a model for future per- formances as the realist doctor Rating. Mr. Marius Goring's Gregers is much the best performance he has so far achieved ; uncompromising, obtuse, fanatical, boundlessly idealistic and boundlessly interfering, this is the figure of the quint- essential prig. The smaller parts are all efficiently played, and Mr. Peter Goffin's decor and costumes deserve praise. In short, but for Mr. Napier's disastrous Hjalmar, one would say that this best of plays could not be better done.
DEREK VERSCHOYLE.
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