Duck Pond

by Circa
Created by Yaron Lifschitz and the Circa Ensemble

Sun Nov 1 | 3PM

Members

Event details

Feathers will fly when Swan Lake is reimagined as a contemporary circus spectacular and collides with the story of The Ugly Duckling. Two tales of identity and discovery are brought to life with exuberant energy by the Australian performance troupe Circa. Pioneering how extreme physicality can create powerful and moving performances, Circa will sweep you away with sumptuous aerials, jaw-dropping acrobatics, and the touching, utterly entertaining tale about finding your true self.

Sun Nov 1 | 3PM

Ticket prices

$43–$79

“Graceful aerial solos. Jaw dropping lifts. Superhuman balances. Swan Lake as you’ve never seen it before”
– The Times

Circa acknowledges the assistance of the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body and the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.

Duck Pond is co-commissioned by QPAC and The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi, The Art House Wyong, Frankston Arts Centre, HOTA – Home of the Arts, Merrigong Theatre Company and Orange Civic Theatre.

Director, Stage Design Yaron Lifschitz
Composer and Sound Designer Jethro Woodward
Costume Designer Libby McDonnell
Lighting Designer Alexander Berlage
Associate Director Marty Evans
Dramaturg/Associate Choreographer Rani Luther
Voice Over Artist Elise Greig

Footage of brutal swan fight used with the kind permission of Carl Bovis.

Artists’ Representatives Allen Moon / David Lieberman

Due to the nature of circus performance, the individuals in the Circa Ensemble are subject to change. A current and accurate list of acrobats involved in the performance will be available closer to the performance date.

Media

About the Artist

Yaron Lifschitz makes shows. Big ones, small ones, and ones that defy easy categorisation. More than 80 productions have toured across six continents and played to over two million people picking up a shelf’s worth of awards including six Helpmanns, The ISPA Distinguished Artist Award and the Australia Council Theatre Award.

As CEO and Artistic Director of Circa he has brought circus to the Barbican, string quartets and acrobats to Brooklyn Academy of Music, four years of performances to Berlin and major shows to major festivals and venues around the world. He’s created strange, beautiful things in tents, concert halls, spiegeltents, and opera houses as well as cemeteries and cathedrals. His film work has appeared at the Berlin and Melbourne Film Festivals.

Yaron was the founding Director of the Australian Museum’s Theatre Unit, he has taught directing at NIDA and ATYP and has directed opera, concerts and events. In 1999 he was the first Artistic Director of Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus which, in 2004, he transformed into Circa. In 2018 he was Creative Lead of Festival 2018, the cultural program of the 21st Commonwealth Games – one of the most ambitious arts events in Queensland’s history.

At the heart of Yaron’s work is restless curiosity and a fierce belief in the power of performance to connect and transform. He describes his creations as “love letters to a species that not always easy to like”.

Jethro Woodward is a Melbourne-based composer, musical director, arranger, musician and sound designer recognised for his expansive and highly layered film, theatre and dance scores. A multi Green Room Award winner and Helpmann nominee, he has worked with some of Australia’s leading major and independent companies including; Malthouse Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Opera Victoria, Chamber Made Opera, Back to Back, Chunky Move, Lucy Guerin, Australian Dance Theatre, Aphids, Stuck Pigs Squealing, Rawcus, Kage and more.

A composition graduate from the Victorian College of the Arts, Jethro draws upon his detailed understanding of contemporary music and its uses in live performance, including innovative uses of technology, combining live instrumentation with prerecorded, electronic, musical and sound elements into a seamless flexible and responsive score.

Jethro regularly tours his work internationally and has won Green Room Awards for his work on; The Bloody Chamber (Malthouse Theatre), Moth (Malthouse Theatre/Arena Theatre), Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd (Malthouse Theatre/Arena Theatre) and Irony Is Not Enough (Fragment 31). As a guitarist and singer, he regularly performs with Meow Meow and Paul Capsis, and has been a member of the band Cordarzine over the past 15 years. He most recently was the composer of Rapture at Sydney Festival 2021, directed by Michael Kantor and starring Paul Capsis and iOTA.

Libby McDonnell is a designer, director, and creative lead. As Head of Engagement and Design at Circa, she has designed costumes for over 40 productions, co-directed major works, and led key community programs, including the pilot of Circability. Libby holds a First Class Honours degree from Queensland College of Art and an Associate Degree in Dance from QUT.

Her career has moved fluidly between performance, education, touring, and leadership. Libby is known for her clear eye and unwavering belief in the power of art to connect.

Alexander Berlage is an award-winning director and lighting designer. He is co-artistic director of the Old Fitz Theatre. Alexander has won the Sydney Theatre Award Best Direction of a Musical for the past two years in a row – for AMERICAN PSYCHO and CRY-BABY at Hayes Theatre Co.

As a lighting designer, Alexander has worked for Sydney Theatre Company, Opera Queensland, Circa, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Sydney Chamber Opera, Sydney Dance Company, Griffin Theatre, Ensemble Theatre, Hayes Theatre Co., Australian Theatre for Young People, and Redline Productions.

His smash-hit, sold-out production of AMERICAN PSYCHO won 9 Sydney Theatre Awards including Best Direction of a Musical, Best Production of a Musical, and Best Lighting Design of an Independent Production and more. Alexander’s production of GLORIA was nominated for 2 Sydney Theatre Awards. Alexander’s production of CRY-BABY received rave reviews, sold out and won 4 Sydney Theatre Awards including Best Direction of a Musical, and Best Production of a Musical. The same year, his productions of THERE WILL BE A CLIMAX, HOME INVASION and CRY-BABY received a combined total of 12 Sydney Theatre Award nominations. For THERE WILL BE A CLIMAX, Alexander was nominated for Best Direction of an Independent Production and Best Independent Production.

Alexander’s directing work includes: DIARY OF ONE WHO DISAPPEARED, FUTURE REMAINS (with Sydney Festival), RESONANT BODIES (Sydney Chamber Opera); YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, AMERICAN PSYCHO, CRY-BABY (Hayes Theatre Co.); GLORIA (Outhouse Theatre Co); THERE WILL BE A CLIMAX (Redline Productions/NIDA); HOME INVASION (An Assorted Few/Old 505); and THE VAN DE MAAR PAPERS (An Assorted Few/PACT).

Alexander holds a Bachelor of Dramatic Art (Production) and a Master of Fine Art (Directing) from the National Institute for Dramatic Art, Sydney. In 2019, Alexander was awarded a Mike Walsh Fellowship.

Rani Luther was born in Melbourne and attended the National Theatre Ballet School before completing her year 7-12 education at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School.Rani’s professional dance career began with the Kiel Ballet Company Germany in 1995 before moving to The Netherlands where she danced with world-renowned Netherlands Dance Theatre 2 and Netherlands Dance Theatre 1.In 2003 Rani returned home to dance with The Australian Ballet Company for four years, joined Sydney Dance Company in 2007 and retired from stage as a principal dancer with Melbourne Ballet Company in 2011.

Rani has had the great pleasure of working with and performing works by choreographers such as Jiri Kylián, Hans Van Manen, Paul Lightfoot, Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin, William Forsythe, Johan Inger, Jacopo Gordani, Edward Liang, Graeme Murphy, Stephan Page, Stephen Baynes, Adrian Burnett, and Rafael Bonachela.South Africa 1993medal at the Sanlam International Ballet Competition, South Africa 1993, was winner of the outstanding performance award in the City of Sydney Ballet Scholarship 1994 and received a nomination for best female dancer in the Green Room Award 2006 for her roles in Relic and Jiri with The Australian Ballet Company. Rani was an adjudicator for the Sydney Eisteddfod Ballet Scholarship 2012, 2014 and 2016.

Rani’s choreographic creations include two works for NDT Workshop performances 2001/2002, Face the Music for Carriageworks Theatre Sydney 2012, Illuminate for MBC Empyrean season 2016 and Outside In for The Sydney Dance Company Pre-Professional season 2017. In 2018 Rani choreographed Lunar for Queensland Ballet’s inaugural season of Synergy and in 2019 Heartstrings for the Australian Ballet Company’s Bodytorque season. In 2020 Rani choreographed From. To. Here for Queensland Ballet’s Bespoke season and in 2022 choreographed Butterfly Effect for the inaugural season of TDC presents Encore season. In 2019 Rani was appointed Ballet Mistress and Creative Associate for Queensland Ballet and in 2022-2023 Creative Associate for Queensland Ballet and Thomas Dixon Centre in which Rani curated the Secret Lives of Costumes exhibition in collaboration with Griffith University QAC, produced, curated, and choreographed four Global Fusion series performances in collaboration with Brisbane Multicultural Arts Centre and curated, produced and choreographed the Encore season in November 2022. Rani founded Flourish by Rani Luther in 2023.

Marty Evans came to circus by a more roundabout route than most. Marty left behind his published scientific career at Australia’s only nuclear reactor to embrace his physical sports background and pursue a career in circus. Marty then trained at the National Institute of Circus Arts in Melbourne.

Marty is a fiercely determined and hardworking hand-to-hand base that enjoys exploring new challenges and techniques. It was at NICA that Marty first came across Circa and was inspired by the combination of artistic and physical excellence. Marty joined the Circa Ensemble full time in 2015 and has been involved in the creation of numerous Circa productions including Humans, Humans 2.0, Sacre, and Duck Pond. In 2023 Marty completed a Master’s in Arts and Cultural Management and in 2024 he took up the role of Executive Officer at Circa.