Honk

Honk is a story of a swan who is thought to be an ugly duckling appropriately called Ugly very well played by Dom LeLean. From the moment he hatched very dramatically with four delightful baby ducklings he acted and sang with great feeling. He is very sad as he feels he doesn’t belong but is soon befriended by The Cat who lures him away from the nest and the farm yard promising him a very good lunch!  The cat is convincingly played by Alistair Scott. They have a delightful scene when they sing ‘Play with your Food’ but Ugly manages to make his escape before becoming ‘crispy duck’ but then gets lost for six months or more.  In the mean time Ida, his mother, cleverly performed by by Kim Logan, is in despair and decides to leave her other babies in the tender care of Drake to go and search for her missing offspring. Her acting was a pleasure to watch and her singing of ‘The Joy of Motherhood’ and ‘Every tear a Mother Cries’ showed great maturity.  Hal Darling played Drake making the most of some very amusing lines, He was the epitome of the harassed father causing much amusement.  His timing was exceptional. Ugly meets many varied characters on his travels and has some near misses with the animal known as man.  One of his new friends was Bullfrog played by Toby Sawyer.  This part might have been written for him. He was hilarious and obviously enjoyed every moment especially when tap dancing on a lily pad and singing ‘Warts and All’. Kizzie Ravera and Luke Oratis gave good performances and the rest of the principals, the ducklings and the ensemble gave good support. Sadly the music was all on tape for this particular production which is more difficult for the youngsters on stage and certainly detracted from the show in the first half.  Getting the volume levels correct for both audience and performers can always be a bit of a problem but under the direction of James LeLean and a bit of fine tuning all problems were solved by act two. I hope to see his excellent junior orchestra back for the next production. The costumes were good with some lovely quirky elements adding suitable characteristics to each of the animals and birds. The lighting was on cue, the scene changes were done smoothly and the sound worked well showing no issues with the technical team.  Overall Julie Jordan directed an enjoyable show, which came across in the children’s acting, singing and dancing. As always I look forward to coming to see their future productions,

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