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Honk!
B2 Belgrade Theatre, Coventry
*****
Honk! is a joy. It is a retelling of Hans
Christian Andersen’s Ugly Duckling story and I’m sure he would be proud
that his tale has been given such imaginative, witty and resourceful
treatment.
Ida Duck (Ellie Nunn) is sitting on her brood of
duckling eggs. One egg troubles her; it is significantly larger than the
rest and takes longer to hatch. (I loved her song about the joys of
motherhood incorporating tap-dancing!).
The biggest egg finally hatches and the duckyard
occupants aren’t that impressed. They simply call him Ugly (Gregor
Duncan). Mother of the House (Emma Barclay) tells Ida that he must go.
Duckyard cat and villain of the piece (James
Dangerfield) thinks he would make a really tasty lunch and lures him
away. Mum Ida is distraught and spends six months looking for him
through all weathers. Drake (Chris Thomson) and the ducklings,
inventively engineered puppetry with yellow umbrellas, are left behind.
Ugly and the ducklings are given brilliant advice
by Ida – and cat’s mum has advised cat too. Anyone who has a cat will
recognise these – shred the cushions and make sure you play with your
food before you eat it!
Ugly meets a variety of animals who advise on how
to live his life. I particularly loved the funny frog (Peter Noden) and
the gorgeous buggy-eyed frogettes. Finally, Ugly meets Penny (Danni
Payne) a beautiful swan who knows instantly what he is and invites him
to join their migration flight to the sun.
It is a clever re-imagining of a well-known story
with layers and layers of topical message underneath and, as audience,
we are left to our own devices to work these out. The music (George
Stiles)is wonderful, the cast are brilliant singers and dancers, there
are musicians on stage, two violinists in the cast too and the Olivier
Award 2000 strongly deserved. This is a great family show and the
families spotted around me seemed engrossed as the story unfolded.
This is a great production with a strong cast.
There are some actors who dominate the stage purely by charisma and
Ellie Nunn as Ida is one of these. Whatever your age, this is really
worth seeing as a truly memorable piece of theatre.
With Book and lyrics Anthony Drewe and directed
by Andy Room, Honk! will be quacking on to 08-06-19.
Jane Howard
04-06-19
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