Duck Pond review: Bouncy, bendy bodies in a beautiful, acrobatic take on Swan Lake

Duck Pond

Festival Theatre, Kingfisher Club, University of Galway

★★★★☆

Galway International Arts Festival’s sunny weather finally broke for the opening of this show, switching temporarily to the west’s more familiar July rain – duck weather – as the audience streamed towards the huge temporary arena that the festival has created in the University of Galway’s sports centre for this spectacular from the Australian contemporary-circus company Circa.

It’s is an acrobatic take on Swan Lake – Duck Pond: geddit? – with a smidgen of The Ugly Duckling and a dash of Cupid. So a mash-up. Leaflets with an elaborate Swan Lake-style storyline are distributed, but relax into it and don’t worry too much about who’s who or what’s going on; this is all about the superlative acrobatics and the beauty and skill of the human body, with a bit of quirky humour thrown in via the army of ducks, flipper-footed and clown-trousered.

Ten acrobats on stage give the impression of a larger troupe in director Yaron Lifschitz’s beautiful, vigorous take on the romantic ballet. Jethro Woodward’s new score has many Tchaikovskian echoes and flourishes. As you’d expect with Circa, the acrobatics are awe-inspiring: these are bouncy, bendy, boneless bodies. It’s only the occasional moment of hesitation or adjustment that brings home quite what these human bodies are doing.

There are two-ups and three-ups, aerial on silks and hoops, bodies being flung and bodies piling upon bodies. An acrobat’s stiletto walk across another’s almost naked body is the stuff of wince. There’s also delicacy and swanlike beauty and movement. The aesthetic is white, black and silver, with the ducklings adding a splash of colour.