Melbourne Reviews

When you hear the words Swan Lake, your mind floods with feathery images of a dying swan in a pristine white tutu to the soaring sounds of Tchaikovsky. But when you hear that leading Australian circus troupe, Circa, has created their own anarchistic version of the ballet, you’ll need to forget everything you know about Odette versus Odile.

Entitled Duck Pond, the production is a mashup of two fairytales, Swan Lake and The Ugly Duckling, and takes huge liberties with both. The famous chords of Tchaikovsky’s score begin, and so does the action; acrobats pile on top of each other to perform increasingly more impressive feats of strength and flexibility.

It’s an interesting concept and takes existing intellectual property and repurposes it into something wildly different. While this is a popular trope in film and television with constant reboots and expanding universes, it’s not something commonly used in dance or circus. A mixed bag of characters from both fairytales fill the stage, led by an enigmatic Cupid who also performs one of the most impressive stunts of the night as she completes a death-defying silks routine.

The joyfully strange concept is directed by Circa’s Artistic Director, Yaron Lifschitz, who turns the tragic story of the betrayed swan on its head to excellent effect, giving audiences an alternate ending to two of the most recognised stories in history. Jethro Woodward’s distorted score blends the traditional with the contemporary and matches Lifschitz’s tone. Offset against lighting designer Alexander Berlage’s conceptual colours, the entire production is more an experience than anything else.

Glittering in black mesh, the black swan Odile and her attention-grabbing display of flexibility was impossibly impressive. Next to the stark contrast of 14 yellow ducks, bumbling, tumbling and clowning their way across the stage in utter chaos, it was the epitome of Circa’s weird and wacky ethos.  

Following a sold-out season in London and Sydney, Duck Pond incorporates the best in acrobatics with a cheeky, slapstick style all of its own. Running at just over an hour, it’s much more accessible than a traditional three-act ballet and will leave you smiling, if a little baffled.