Lakeside Arts invited us to see The Ugly Duckling on Sunday 19th November 2017. Our five-year-old reviewer took her mother along.
As we entered the theatre, a performer wandered through the audience greeting children with a flapping dragonfly puppet, while someone played a ukulele. The set presented a pond scene. Once the audience had settled, three actors gathered before us.
The story was the familiar one about a duckling very different from his siblings, rejected by them, wandering off to find out who he really was and having some adventures on the way. After playing hide and seek a little too well, he met a streetwise goose, a too-friendly dog and a disdainful cat, before discovering he had something in common with a very cool swan. His mother loved him unconditionally and, unlike in other tellings of this tale, we found out exactly how he’d come to be in her nest, when he paid her a touching return visit.
Delightful characters were portrayed through dance and song as well as acting, with imaginatively crafted costumes and puppets. The detail provided by set and lighting too, added an element of naturalistic magic to an easy-to-follow character-led story. Perfect for its age 3-7 target audience, with a nicely portrayed ‘be who you are (even if you need a bit of space to work out who that is), be kind and try to see the best in others too’, anti-bullying theme. Our five-year-old was fully engaged and had a lot of fun.
Delightful, beautifully detailed and really quite magical.
FD and CG for Mumsnet Nottingham.
Read the full article at https://www.mumsnet.com/local/nottingham/event/ugly-duckling-nottingham-lakeside-arts.