The Ducks explores the lives of two unemployed young people in Northern England working as volunteers cleaning out a duck pond. The story follows the strange relationship between the two men, R and K, and how it evolves. Written by the up-and-coming Micheal McClean, it professes to be a ground-breaking piece of new theatre but I felt it did not push the necessary boundaries. Unemployment is a very pertinent subject and, given the production’s association with charities working with the unemployed, I expected the script to delve more into the gritty details and experiences of young job-seekers in Britain.Putting this aside however, the men's relationship is very intriguing. The actors, Dean Ashton and Thomas Morrison, are superb. I would struggle to fault them as they did the characters justice, showing their internal struggles well. They manage to keep the comedy of this play very much alive and Ashton has great timing. I particularly loved the discussions on how annoying cartoon ducks are, picking up penguins and how a Boots meal deal is never filling. The pervading loneliness in this play reminded me of The Catcher in the Rye, where Holden, dealing with depression, becomes lonely when all the ducks in Central Park fly away and he doesn’t understand where they go - does someone look after them or are they left to fend for themselves in the winter months? These questions can be posed for R and K in The Ducks. Each of the characters’ journeys centres around the loss and loneliness. The writing is good in that it develops the characters personal stories that ultimately impact their relationship with each other.This is a good exploration of personal relationships but it did not explore unemployment as much as I was expecting. None the less, it was fantastic to see such a great display of strong acting and a well-written observation of friendship.
