Swan Lake meets The Ugly Duckling in Circa’s Duck Pond

Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London
December 20, 2024

Swan Lake has seen numerous reinterpretations over its many years but I’m pretty sure there’s never previously been a pairing with Hans Christian Andersen’s The Ugly Duckling. But that’s just what noted Brisbane-based contemporary circus company Circa deliver in Duck Pond, an entertaining take on the classic ballet that comes with all the important figures: a prince looking for a bride, an Ugly Duckling/Odette, a flock of white swans and a sexy black swan. And a rather surprise ending.

The familiar Tchaikovsky is there too. Sort of. Composer and sound designer Jethro Woodward’s mash up of it is certainly different, but his percussive score fits the work well, and leaves plenty of familiar signposts and moments.

Duck Pond is a tightly choreographed show, with something happening every minute, although as tends to be the way with contemporary circus, the acrobatics tend to overshadow the story. It is just as well there’s a synopsis in the programme (only available via a QR code), as while some characters and moments are obvious, especially if you are familiar with Swan Lake in particular, things do get a bit lost in the pondweed on occasion.

But what acrobatics! There are plenty of the usual handstands and tumbling, and a number of seriously impressive towers of bodies built, three and even four high. But what is really memorable is the ease with which the performers fly through the air. In many ways they are the total opposite of swans, which are powerful and strong but sort of the jumbo jet of waterfowl. These birds are utterly graceful as they soar and glide before being caught so beautifully smoothly by their colleagues. The level of trust shown is staggering.

Although the narrative sees the two stories collide, the show opens in familiar fashion on the eve of The Prince’s birthday party. With he and his friends and revellers dressed identically (save for a crown for The Prince) in designer Libby McDonnell’s rather elegant sparkly black unitards, there’s plenty of acrobatic fun and games before it all ends with a pillow fight. Appropriately, feathers fly.

The Ugly Duckling is differentiated by being in a sort of brown-grey. Needless to say, The Prince falls for her but it’s never going to work, of course. That probably doesn’t say a lot for Cupid, the show’s half-black, half-white, winged individual pulling everyone’s strings.

Our heroine may now be down, but fear not because the mood is immediately lightened by a battalion of ducklings. The way they enter is a massive nod to the swans of Swan Lake. But these birds wear baggy yellow clown pants and flippers, and subsequently dance an amusing number with orange mops. I defy anyone not to at least smile. They’re effectively Duck Pond’s cygnets, although unlike in Swan Lake, they do have a narrative purpose in that they console the Ugly Duckling.

Duck Pond is not without its risqué moments and the first comes with the arrival of the Black Swan. In her red stilettos, she captivates the virtually naked Prince, walking on his prone figure front and back in a scene that is eye-watering and suggestive.

Back at the lake, we find the ensemble now as swans, in white. Initially rejected, the Ugly Duckling eventually also turns white and flies. Literally.

And then, in a totally unexpected twist, the Ugly Duckling and Black Swan fall for each other. That prompts one of the better character moments as The Prince implodes before our two lovers head into the sunset. Except that the end is not the end.

With the story pretty much done and dusted, the cast set about deconstructing the stage and set, indulging in a few solo set pieces as they do so, including a corde lisse and cyr wheel acts. There’s also a very odd moment involving near-naked dancers posing suggestively in trucks, first women, then men. It is actually rather amusing for the tongue-in-cheek way it is done, but it is a bit racy. Amsterdam red light district anyone?

Although the Swan Lake theme does sort of briefly return, it all feels rather disconnected and unnecessary; and the taking up of the floor takes an age.

For all that, Duck Pond is an entertaining eighty minutes or so. The performers superb, the acrobatics terrific.