An irreverent blend of en pointe ballet and clowning, enchanting choreography and dick jokes, Canadian performer Lauren Brady's Swan? reimagines Swan Lake if Odette hadn’t killed herself and was instead still seeking her prince. Parodying fairytale endings, we meet the now 147-year-old, chain-smoking, swan-ballerina-princess as she looks for potential suitors from the audience.

‘Clown and ballet are very, very different beasts,’ Edmonton-based Brady observes. ‘The challenge of combining them is something I found very exciting.’ Yet, having initially staged the show as OWEaDEBT in Adelaide last year (it’s now been further developed, with the help of directing consultant Nicole Maloney), Brady has concluded they are similar in one area. ‘Impulse. In clown and comedy, you rely on your impulse to gauge the audience and your connection with them. In ballet, after a lifetime of training, technique becomes an impulse and is constantly there to support you.’ This gives the physical comedy in Swan? ‘a different level of strange yet beautiful choices’.

Brady’s Odette asks big questions: ‘how can women be heroes when our role models are damsels; why do we change ourselves for a romantic partner; why are women in competition with each other and what is pretty privilege?’ All the while, Brady brings the audience into Odette’s world, teaching us what it’s like to be a swan. ‘You’ll honk, learn a mating dance and earn a star. If you're very lucky, you might even get to come on stage and be my hero.' 

Swan?, The Courtyard Of Curiosities At The Migration Museum, 20 February–2 March, 6.10pm; main picture: Joel Sims.