For its latest production, City Contemporary Dance Company invited Norwegian choreographer Ina Christel Johannessen to create a full-length piece based on The Wild Duck, written in 1884 by her compatriot and great playwright Henrik Ibsen.
The story begins when a man named Gregers returns home after 15 years to find his old friend, Hjalmar, happily married to Gina, a former servant of Gregers' wealthy father. The couple have a young daughter named Hedvig, whom they adore.
However, Gregers believes Gina had an affair with his father - and that Hedvig is the child borne of that relationship. Disgusted and believing it is wrong to live a lie, he tells Hjalmar the truth, setting off a chain of events which culminate in the innocent Hedvig's suicide.
The choice of play is curious as the purpose of The Wild Duck is to explore a moral question: Is it better to live a lie and be happy or should the truth be revealed at any cost?
Dance is not a good medium for intellectual debate of this kind. Other Ibsen works ( A Doll's House, for example) would lend themselves better to a dance interpretation.
Nonetheless, it should be possible for a choreographer with a mastery of narrative work to produce an effective version of the play. Unfortunately, Johannessen's work fails to fulfil the most basic requirements of narrative dance.