"The Five Duck Thieves of Christmas"
Review
One of the delights of reviewing the artists I do are the left field projects so many get involved with: so many have side musical projects and are talented visual artists as well.
However I'm certain that I never contemplated writing about a panto ("oh yes you did"). Had I done so, Duck Thieves with their unique "indie pop, punk panto" approach are not only top of the list but the only ones on it.
Therefore their decision to write & perform their own full pantomime in 2024 has triggered the need to tell you about it.
Created in partnership with DJ Millabong of Brum Radio, you can hear the whole production via this link:
You'll see at once that this is no mere skit: it's a full length production which alone shapes how I must write this piece: highlights rather than minute detail.
However perhaps even more pertinently, I'm not sure I'm capable of reflecting it adequately in words. It may be a genre I'm less experienced in reviewing but the sheer scale is daunting. Not merely at the macro level (and it's worth noting straight away that this is a "proper" narrative from start to finish which frankly puts many traditional pantos to shame) but not a moment is wasted in sharing minutely crafted component gems.
The work which must have gone into devising this is staggering: the concept is huge but the script is full of incisive (and hugely satirical) barbs between the exposition & the plot elements. And then there are the high quality adaptations (in the classic panto style) of suitable songs to fit the story. To be honest, had it not been for the lyrical changes, so well are these performed that I initially mistook the first couple for reworkings by the original artists. In fact after multiple plays I became rather disorientated (possibly what they intended) as to which were Duck Thieves' versions & which were by artists they admire & whose songs fitted anyway. Have fun with that conundrum.
Throughout, the Duck Thieves maintain their trademark accessible humour but the darts aimed shrewdly & accurately at a huge range of favoured targets: so much so that the breathless pace at which "The Five Duck Thieves of Christmas" rattles along means that processing some of them requires a second or third play (which of course is not something they'd want to deter you from).
You knew members could create films, fiction, photographs & visual art in addition to their musical skills (and as I say, the panto really allows them to show the latter off), but who knew how well they could act? Michelle, Justin, Diana, Joe & Tom are all essentially playing versions (exaggerated or lightly fictionalised?) of themselves so no need for accents etc, but the confidence of the delivery is striking. There are also additional characters who may be guests or various Duck Thieves actually putting on different voices: again dissecting those is beyond me so I leave that to you.
Where the inhouse expertise in film comes into play are the cunning nods to genres and the lacing of the script with quotations from the movies to match those from the world of song. The glory (or one of them) really is in the detail here.
If the composition took them plenty of time (which I'm guessing it did), the recording with its mixture of the songs, incidental music, dialogue & sound effects can't have been a simple job either: nor, given the tightness of the final project & I assume plenty of fun equalising levels, can the editing.
There was a surreal but in hindsight revealing moment at this year's Godiva Festival when the band received a shout out from the stage. Since Justin & Michelle were at the barrier at the time but made no sign of having heard it, I asked them what was so distracting for them to cause them to miss this. They told me that they were planning the tenth anniversary celebrations. Well I've reported on their birthday gig at The Tin but I strongly suspect, given the amount of time presumably spent on "The Five Duck Thieves of Christmas", that this must also have been part of their discussion that afternoon. If so, it was one heck of a productive chat.
I have no idea whether something of this nature or on this scale was on the cards earlier in their decade: it seems so fitting now they've done it. Given the commitment of time & energy I guess it might, justly, be a special project. Or maybe we can look forwards to a Duck Thieves panto every year?
