Duck Pond | Circa
As a Brisbane native, especially one that has been so heavily involved in the circus community, I am incredibly proud that we have an internationally renowned company like Circa that calls our city home. I have been very lucky over the years to have seen the majority of their circus productions, attended classes as a student and briefly worked in their company administration as well. The strength of a company like Circa has always lain in their ability to utilise their incredible cast of physical performers and to push the art of circus into new directions, combining their productions with the clever use of simplistic staging and innovative, technical lighting and sound production to create modern circus shows that are a stand out.
The cast of Duck Pond displayed incredible skills and feats of strength throughout the show. It wasn’t long into the performance before we were seeing 3-highs, an acrobatic trick where three performers stand stacked three people high, each one one on top of each other's shoulders. One of these was based by the incredibly strong Georgia Webb. There was no doubt in my mind from there that we were in for an incredible show of skills. As an audience member we were treated to everything that you could want in a contemporary circus show, acrobatics, adagio, aerials, Cyr wheel and some very clever clowning choreography incorporating mops & flip-flops!
All images: Pia Johnson
The lighting production, designed by Alexander Berlage, had some incredibly powerful moments but it did get a bit murky mid-production when darker lighting and costumes were teamed together. The most striking moments were notably during Jon Bonaventura's solo on Corde Lisse (aerial rope); the play of light cast multiple shadows onto the staging curtains, which hung in soft ribbons around all 3-sides of the stage. This gave his performance such incredible impact, you could clearly watch his shadow selves performing incredible aerial feats alongside him. It was breathtaking.
In stark contrast, Georgia Webb’s cyr wheel solo was so striking because of the play with light and shadow. Her costume split into stark white front and black back halves, which looked incredible as she spun around inside that wheel.
While the skills on display were everything you'd expect from Circa, where this production went off the rails for me was in the forced, murky storyline. Each audience member was provided with a free program on entry, containing a synopsis of the show which described in full the show’s inspiration, and full breakdown of the ‘story’ in each act of the show. Circa’s ‘Duck Pond’ was inspired by the classic ballet ‘Swan Lake’ and the well-known fairy tale of ‘The Ugly Duckling’. These stories are linked simplistically, seemingly because they both contain swans, but therein the similarities of those tales ends. To add another set of wings into the mix, the story’s narrator was Cupid…or so the program told us.
I am in a unique position as I sat and watched this circus production, because I have studied in depth the production of Swan Lake and written several analytical works on its renowned impact on the dance world and pop culture during my studies as a dance student. I have seen many productions of Swan Lake and other variations of this story which include (of course) the movie Black Swan, The Little Mermaid, The Swan Princess and Les Ballets Trockadero - an all male ballet troupe who parody classical ballet productions, just to name a few. Unfortunately, in the case of 'Duck Pond', the ham-handed approach to the storyline, incorporation of mixed metaphors and the lack of clear climax or resolution for the characters resulted in a confusing narrative.
On top of this, there were minimal visual storytelling techniques utilised to help convey the narrative of Duck Pond, particularly with the costuming. Non-verbal storytelling techniques are incredibly important in physical theatre and dance productions and can be reinforced in many ways. For example, utilising the visual impact of costuming can immediately convey a backstory for your character; the status of their wealth, classic tropes of good vs. evil, job roles and can even evoke an immediate emotional response from the audience. This was not clearly incorporated for me in this production.
All images: Pia Johnson
Circa’s cast was costumed in predominantly all Black or all White, colours which historically lean on the Angelic/Demonic, Good/Evil, light vs shade of it all. Our protagonist was dressed in grey, of course denoting her ‘other’ status as an outsider, confused by her own identity and the ‘cupid’ character was in stark black/white contrasting costume, neither one or the other but bringing both sides together. The entire supporting cast began in all black - the prince and his entourage of human party guests. The prince wore a crown for a brief moment to overstate his character from Swan Lake, before promptly removing it before he had to perform his circus tricks to, I assume, prevent it falling off.
The cast then finished all in white, they all became swans I guess, while our cupid remained consistently contrasted and our leading lady, the ‘ugly’ duckling, moved from grey to white, realising that she’s been a swan all along. Our ‘black swan’ remained in black, which should mark her as the outsider except that our female leads choose each other at the end of the production. The conflict that should be represented by the Prince, Black Swan & Ugly Duckling’s love triangle was not very well conveyed, and the prince’s final ‘betrayal’ of not being chosen is punctuated by a cleverly executed, albeit confusing physical tantrum as our ladies seemingly leave the stage together. Throughout the production some members of the cast are also in and out of tutus, to again ram down our throats that this is based on a ballet and ballet dancers, because such dancers are known for their tutu wearing. This costuming choice did nothing to enhance the characters, highlight movement or choreography or propel this production into the realm of contemporary circus. All these choices felt like a heavy-handed approach to over-explain the narrative influences, but did not do anything to elevate this production or give it a unique point of view in any way.
The climax of the story is also not the end of the show. The final act is a well-used application by Yaron Lifschitz, Circa’s Artistic Director, to ‘Break the Fourth Wall’, wherein the performers acknowledge the audience and their knowledge that this is all part of a show and they are in fact working hard behind the scenes to entertain us. This can work to great effect in connecting with audiences, but it felt very jarring to lash this on to the end of a production that was supposed to be based in narrative. The time spent on dismantling the Duck Pond storyline and physical staging could be invested in fleshing out the finer details of the storyline and character development.
All images: Pia Johnson
My guest that accompanied me to see the show last night, had no prior knowledge of Swan Lake or what the inspirations for Duck Pond were and they didn’t read the program. Debriefing after the show they were impressed by the circus skills and some of the lighting design techniques, but they did not understand the storyline of this production and could only tell me that it had something to do with ducks and swans.
In summation, if you enjoy seeing circus performances, you’ll enjoy this show. The cast do a wonderful job and display a wide range of fabulous skills. It won’t be a production that leaves a life-changing impression on you, but you will enjoy it even if you leave somewhat confused by the overall narrative. If, like me, you go in as an audience member with a critical eye for circus and dance productions and with a knowledge of the classical greats, you may leave somewhat disappointed and confused. I still walked away with a feeling of great pride for the local artists involved, even though I wouldn’t see it again. I have great hope that this production evolves into a more succinct version of what is being currently presented for future seasons.
