Philip Osment’s adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Ugly Duckling’ has a broad wingspan, its spread taking in Boudicca’s AD62 demise and the non-nuclear family’s 21st-century domestic angst. It is, for all that, a sweet, seasonal comedy. Directed by Rosamunde Hutt, this duckling’s emotional journey takes a couple of nosedives into pathos, but any vaguely cringeworthy moment quickly rights itself into finer or more powerful feelings, or, more usually, a good giggle.
Osment’s thoughtful script, designer Louise Ann Wilson’s exceptional visuals and Tom Johnson’s expressive music fit together splendidly from the outset. The excitement builds as we watch diminutive Mother Duck (Inika Leigh Wright) nod off on her lofty position on a gigantic egg and the tramp philosopher Declan (John O’Mahony, with his accordion and hypnotic Connemara lilt) expound on that ultimate rus in urbs, Hampstead Heath, the setting for this action. The scene is a sloping circular pond, and the action taking place on and around it is described by music of harp and keyboard. Musician Ruby Aspinall flutters lightly between the two instruments whose contrasting voices evoke season, mood and emotion. Liam Lane gives a touching comic performance as the shunned, honking Ugly, from his Mr Bean-ish staggering out of the egg, through a tattered raincoat-flapping fledgling stage, to his final handsome Matthew Bourne-esque leaping, white-suited triumph. With comic costumes that have to segue at top speed between bird and human roles and glowing, decorative touches that descend from the lights to signify the changing of the seasons, this is a stylish and richly rewarding show. Soppy and sentimental in parts, yes, but like a duck-down quilt in a centrally heated home, its excesses bring a warm and cuddly feeling, all the same.
