ugly duckling

"I never dreamed of such happiness as this while I was an ugly little duckling."

Many of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales deal with the subject of transformation: the little mermaid turns into a human, the ugly duckling into a beautiful swan. The fact that these can also be regarded as a masked game of sexual and gender transformation is the starting point for a project that juxtaposes Andersen's fairy tales with the lives of Berlin drag queens. These doyens of urban nightlife turn this gender-bending game into a liberating spectacle. In doing so, they move between shameless self-expression and subcultural crusade. Their transformations using make-up and wigs produce not only a new persona but also new self-confidence. The character that emerges is the proud swan, in whose form the ugly duckling can confront the world.

The director Bastian Kraft was honoured with the "Ehrenstöckel" by "Travestie für Deutschland" in 2019.

All performances are shown with English surtitles.

Note: Strobe light is used in the performance.