A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

The Wild Duck (Fjelde, trans.)

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  3w, 12m

Henrik Ibsen
Translated by Rolf Fjelde

"Pursues a version of Ibsen that avoids the stodginess of most academic translations, while eschewing the liberal cut-and-paste approach of many ambitious artists." - Playbill.com
"The truest to the original and unexcelled for theatri…

The Wild Duck (Fjelde, trans.)

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    3w, 12m

Details

Summary
The late Rolf Fjelde, a Brooklyn native of Norwegian descent, translated his first Ibsen play, The Wild Duck, in 1956. Founding President of the Ibsen Society of America and perhaps the most widely-known translator of Ibsen's work, Mr. Fjelde worked to avoid what he called, "stiff and hobbled diction — or, certainly no better, a cavalier freedom that has cut or padded the text." Henrik Ibsen's 1884 drama, The Wild Duck, tells the story of Gregers Werle, an idealist who returns to his hometown after some absence. While there he begins to meddle in the affairs of the Ekdals, an odd family who appear to live a humble artistic life. Gregers, who believes that the pursuit of the ideal demands the exposition of absolute truth, summons the Ekdals to cure them of what he sees as various delusional fantasies. In so doing, Gergers unleashes the tragic unraveling of the very fabric of the Ekdals lives.
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Media

"Pursues a version of Ibsen that avoids the stodginess of most academic translations, while eschewing the liberal cut-and-paste approach of many ambitious artists." - Playbill.com
"The truest to the original and unexcelled for theatrical performance" - Harold Clurman

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  • Minimum Fee: $110 per performance

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Authors

Henrik Ibsen

At age 23, Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) became theatre director and resident playwright of the new National Theatre at Bergen, charged with creating a national drama. He directed the Norwegian Theatre in Kristiana from 1857 to 1863, when the theatre went bankrupt. He then set off ...

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Rolf Fjelde

Rolf Fjelde (1926-2002) was one of the formeost translators of Henrik Ibsen's plays into English, whose translations were heralded by Harold Clurman as ''the truest to the original and unexcelled for theatrical performance.'' Born in Brooklyn, Mr. Fjelde worked also a poet, p ...
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