A slow first act and two seemingly aimless ones following it expelled two people sitting behind me. These people missed a treat in the last two acts of Ibsen's great play. It is then that the characters, ideas, and comedy of "The Wild Duck" bloom, in some of the most masterful writing of modern theater. The acting parallels the movement of the play, reaching a brilliant climax in the last two acts.

The power of those last two is due to the undercutting of one's initial appraisal of the characters. The morally upright are seen to be self-righteous and destructive, while the apparently bad characters are seen to be good, simple, sane human beings, making the best of a bad job.

A rich comedy derives from the series of paradoxes and moral upheavals in the play. It is an unstrained humor which flows naturally from character and situation, and at times it edges near to tragedy.

Blanche Yurka, plays is an exceptional actress. Her superb technique enables her to be effortless yet constantly interesting. And her emotional capacity is vast when she is called upon to use it. Of her supporting east, Robert Fletcher is outstanding as her self-dramatizing, self-deceptive husband; Thayer David is very amusing as her testy father-in-law. Jerry Kilty as the moralizer and Albert Marre as an early version of a psychiatrist also performed well.