Herd Theatre's 'Ducklings' was, like many other productions have I seen recently, very 'nice'. It's an adjective I normally avoid like the plague, but so many productions over the last couple of months have been average, fair, perfectly acceptable but nothing special... just 'nice'... and this play was no different. To be fair I was a lone adult without any youngster, and so I saw the show from perhaps a slightly different perspective, but the young children (advertised suitable for ages 4 - 7) all sat on cushions on the front row and were quietly engaged in the show throughout. There was very little auidence interaction, except at the very end, and they all were surprisingly quiet and attentive the whole time, and enjoyed the snowball fight at the end.
Ducklings tells the story of perhaps Hans Christian Andersen's most famous tale, The Ugly Duckling, by first reading the pertinent poem from a book, and then by taking just one idea from that story and developing it into a short show for the children. The idea that aspiring to beauty and conformity isn't always what is required... but instead, never lose the child within you, and always be the best you can be, or indeed just being the best 'you' is all that matters. It's a lovely little moral, and a very prescient message for our age; but perhaps one which would have gone straight over the youngsters' heads.
I liked the stage design (Natalie Pryce) with a feel of a real pond's edge with bark, leaves and tree stumps etc.... but I had absolutely no idea what the large orange grand-piano-shaped structure in the centre was representing.
Two ducklings are seen playing on stage as we enter. We learn that they are Sidney (Verity Mullan) and Spruce (Xsara-Shenielle Pryce), and as they play we soon realise that Spruce is the "good" duckling and Sidney is the more tomboyish and mischievous. It was Mullan who was responsible for all the mild comedy and the few laughs that were in the production, and she got the biggest reaction from the children when she was messing about in the water (using dance ribbon sticks was a lovely idea that worked well). Reading the Andersen text was Sophie Clay, and from where I was seated it looked like she was dressed in the high fashion of the 1920s, when women of money liked to wear kaftans and turbans. It wasn't until she became the character of the very narcissistic swan Coach Spring that it was clear the costume was meant to represent a swan. Her haughty, high-handed manner and her balletic arm movements were at times overmuch and distracting... almost as if it wasn't the character but the actress herself who was momentarily showing off.
The story follows these two ducklings who now have to take part in the annual Swan Show which will demonstrate to all the other pond life just how beautiful, graceful, and indeed elite the swans are. They are put through various tests such as flying, swimming without causing a wake, and graceful movements. Spruce learns more and more and as she does distances herself more from Sidney, who just wants to be a duckling and splash and play!
There is a nice reversal of character for Coach Spring, and the older children certainly will have understood the play and not the moral whilst the younger ones will just have been enthralled by the experience.
A few short unmemorable songs, and a couple of games [mirrored superbly in the auditorium with a game of 'find the acorns'] and good lighting and sound effects completed this 50 minute show. Yes, it was all very 'nice'.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 21/12/19
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