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The Wild Duck, the Deutsches Theater John Gabriel Borkman, the Sehaubühne Berlin, Spring Season, 2009
Ibsen, along with Shakespeare and Chekhov, has been often featured in the productions honored in the annual May Theatertreffen festival held in Berlin. Of these three, only Chekhov was among the dramatists presented in 2009, but major Ibsen productions could nevertheless be seen by leading directors at two of the city's major theatres during this time: the Deutsches Theater's Wild Duck, directed by Michael Thalheimer, whose Emilia Galotti was recently presented in New York at BAM, and the Schaubühne's Borkman, directed by Thomas Ostermeier.
Thalheimer is particularly associated with a minimalist style, and this Wild Duck was no exception, cut to just under two hours running time, with no intermission and shorn of all group scenes (the crowd of Werle dinner guests, the supper at the Ekdals). The stage was similarly bare - no scenery and only three props: the menu from the dinner, the letter of gift from old Werle, and of course the gun. The stark and powerful setting was by Thalheimer's usual designer Olaf Altmann. Instead of the blank walls often utilized, Altmann here created a huge steeply raked revolving stage. Facing the authence, it ran from the footlights steeply up to the back of the very deep stage. When it was turned around, it offered a white curved wall that almost completely filled the proscenium arch.
The opening scenes were played in the latter configuration, with three figures - Gregers (Sven Lehmann), Hjalmar (Ingo Hülsman) and oldr Werle (Horst Lebinsky) - lined up in the narrow downstage space, playing mostly facing out toward the authence and with the usual Thalheimer delivery, a mix of staccacto expression with deliberate silence. High above them, dimly lit, is Hedvig (Henrike Jörissen), her head and arms hanging unmoving over the edge of the stage wall. Old Werle's blindness is emphasized .When he attempts to talk to either his son or Hjalmar, he must locate them by feel and then by the closest examination.
The stage turns to reveal the huge raked circle which for the most part represents the Ekdal home. Occasionally the actors will make rapid, and apparently physically risky moves from the top to bottom of this ramp...