Festival Theatre 30/10/26
Circa
Artistic Director: Yaron Lifschitz
Circa, the Australian contemporary circus company, was born in Brisbane in 2004. An Edinburgh Fringe favourite since 2009, in 2025 it made the acrobatic leap to the International Festival with ‘Orpheus and Eurydice’, a stunning co-production with Opera Queensland and Opera Australia featuring Iestyn Davies and Samantha Clarke in the title roles. Circa’s high octane adrenaline filled acrobatics literally lifted the production to new heights. They now bring their production of ‘Duck Pond’ to amaze, amuse, and move us.
‘Duck Pond’ is a tale of identity and finding your true self; a mashup of ‘Swan Lake’ and ‘The Ugly Duckling’ played out against a background of atmospheric recorded music by Jethro Woodward (with hints of Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky).
Cupid, a black and white swan, directs the action like a puppet mistress; impartial but mischievous. On the night before the Prince’s birthday party the Ugly Duckling appears with a pile of pillows. It is a truth universally acknowledged that where one or more pillows are present a pillow fight must ensue and feathers duly fly. As do sparks - the Prince and the Ugly Duckling meet, fall in love, share a tender and acrobatic pas de deux, but then part. Their relationship can never work. Next, instead of the ‘Dance of the Cygnets’ we see the disco dance of the daffy ducklings, resplendent in sequinned flippers and bewilderment.
In a sultry scene the burlesque Black Swan appears, and the Prince is smitten. The Duckling flees. There’s a grand birthday party for the Prince, complete with sparkling disco ball, in which the performers strive to outdo each other with amazing acrobatics: human towers and pyramids, tumbling, falling, catching, swinging, turning themselves upside down and inside out. Some movements are common to circus and ballet, such as the splits, here performed dangling 20 feet above the stage. The different circus specialisms such as solo rope work, the Cyr wheel, and hoop work appear like interludes in a ballet: solos; pas de deux; trios. It’s a balletic circus performance. Training for the circus also has parallels with the ballet: dedication, trust, fearlessness, and intense physicality.
After a dreamy interlude in which aerial acrobats create colourful shapes in the air like demented Maypole dancers, the Ugly Duckling is transformed into a White Swan. The Prince, the Black Swan, and the White Swan dance tenderly together; then (much to the Prince’s chagrin) the Black Swan chooses the White Swan and they dance a tender pas de deux. Following this fairytale ending we see what swans are like in nature, with a film of swans fighting: not all endings are happy. In the final act the company strikes the set and prepares to leave; the scenery collapses and everything is dismantled but there’s a final flourish of the circus with gravity defying diabolo and hoop work.
The Festival Theatre was crammed with devoted fans of all ages, who gave the ten performers a rapturous ovation. This was a fantastically entertaining and surreal evening, with plenty of real magic.
Photo credit: Pia Johnson
