Duck.
Written by maatin. Presented on tour by House Theatre.
It’s the summer of 2005, England prepare to win the Ashes and Ismail (Smiley to his friends), a British Indian schoolboy, is about to become the youngest-ever player in his elite public school’s First XI cricket team.
He sets his sights on immortality, breaking the school batting record and getting his name into Wisden. But things are about to heat up.
From award-winning playwright maatin, Duck is about adolescence, the pressures of sporting competition and finding your identity in an environment that doesn’t cater for difference.
Recipient of the Pleasance's Charlie Hartill Fund 2024.
Creative captioning - performances are captioned with projected text and illustrations onto the set
Age guidance:12+
Running time: 60 mins (no interval)
★★★★ Everything Theatre
★★★★ Broadway World
★★★★ Theatre Weekly
★★★★ SpyintheStalls
★★★★ First Night Magazine
★★★★ AllThatDazzles
★★★★ Asian Culture Vulture
Credits:
Produced by Broccoli Arts
Writer - maatin
Director - Imy Wyatt-Corner
Original Design - Maariyah Shaarjil
Original Lighting Design - Jonathan Chan
Sound Design - Holly Khan
Caption Design - Rachel Sampley
Image design - Alice Gorman
Production photographs - Isha Shah
DUCK was originally produced by Two Magpies Productions.
"It could not feel more topical"
"The universality of this piece is what truly gives its worth – and ultimately, makes it shimmer"
"A sweet and playful, but powerfully relevant piece of theatre"
"Thought-provoking and moving story of a young British Muslim cricketer"
"An affecting tale of discrimination dismissed as banter"
Duck is a powerful and understated piece of work that proves not only the importance of telling these stories, but of allowing them to be told by the correct people with lived, authentic experience with the topics they are approaching. Cricket is our entry point into Ismail’s world, but the specificities of his life and his background are where the real moments of genius are to be found
"At its heart, Duck is a coming-of-age tale of the adolescent realisation that the safe and simple world you think you know is not all it appears"
"So entertaining yet hits hard when it needs to"
"A warmly observed, gentle, humorous piece (even the subtler manifestations of racism provokes knowing laughs rather than anger), until a surprising twist towards the end"
