"The Wild Duck" calls to all fans of Henrik Ibsen. If you're not a fan but care a bit about theater history, you should know that he wrote more than "A Doll's House." And if you are interested in Western literature, but don't like to turn pages, the Army Community Theatre is ready to read it to you.

Ibsen has been called the father of modern drama, but "The Wild Duck" was written at the end of the 19th century and shows it. One foot is firmly planted in natural realism and the other stands steadfastly on a moral foundation. So, while we see the beginnings of psychological motivation in the characters, Ibsen will make his point by making them do exactly what he will, even if it seems contrived by contemporary standards.

Exposition comes in the form of characters telling each other history of which they are all aware, to assure the audience gets the proper backstory. Characters develop in fits and starts, but their dramatic development continues to move forward. And when Ibsen has one of them place a loaded pistol on the table in Act Two, you can be dead sure someone is going to use it.

Director Vanita Rae Smith splits the original five acts into two parts. For the first three of those acts, we hang in there wondering, "Who are all these people?" But following an intermission and the beginning of Act Four, the play explodes into a raging melodrama that doesn't let up until the final gunshot.

"The Wild Duck" is filled with interesting characters that are a treat to unravel.

Swaine Kaui reads the central role of Harold Arkland, a smugly self-satisfied photographer who was raised by two maiden aunts and whose tragedy was that "everyone thought he was a genius."

The snake in Harold's paradise is an old childhood friend, Gregory Wardle, read with righteousness by Pedro Haro, "Do you believe I did it all for your own good?" Gregory spills out a bag of family secrets, the most damaging having to do with the biological parentage of Harold's daughter Henryette (Madison Eror) and the more than shady past of his wife Gina (Nichole Sullivan.)

In the reading, it's engaging to watch Kaui as he submerges Harold in deep desperation. It's also curious to puzzle out Gregory's role.

Does Gregory disclose better-forgotten secrets from evil intent, or is he abysmally off track in his intent to do good? In either case, the catastrophic results are the same. As a shrewd neighbor observes, "This is what happens when crazy people go around preaching about 'the ideal.' "

But there is plenty of blame to spread around. "You're a sick man, too, you know," says a minor observer. "You suffer from a rash of self-righteousness." Others succumb to "self-admiration and self-pity."

This ACT Readers Theatre production is a sleeper that kicks into high gear in its final acts.

Joseph T. Rozmiarek has reviewed theater performances in Hawai'i since 1973.