THE LITTLE MERMAID

Watermill Theatre

★★★★

“an exquisite blend of the ordinary and the magical”

The Watermill Theatre is no stranger to water as the river courses around and underneath its beautiful historic building, which makes it the perfect setting for this year’s Christmas production of The Little Mermaid. Hans Christian Andersen’s classic melancholy tale of selfless love and spiritual longing has been lovingly recreated by Lara Barbier into a gentle, enchanting folktale set in the heart of a 19th century Cornish fishing community.

Having limited space to suggest both underwater and the world above is a daunting challenge, but April Dalton’s simple yet effective design is the star of the show. She cleverly transports us to an aquatic underworld by means of a reflective floor and a backdrop of rope, string and clever lighting (Emma Chapman) which evoke dense seaweed and double as the sea’s surface on a vertical plane. It then transforms into a functional fishing village using steel scaffolding, connecting the sea to land by incorporating sun-bleached lobster boxes, nets and old ropes.

In this version Merryn (Annabelle Aquino), the mermaid daughter of the Sea King Taran (Christopher Staines), is celebrating her 18th birthday with her siblings Kitto (Zach Burns) and Senara (Lucinda Freeburn). She has always longed to experience life as a human and is finally allowed to see the world above the waves for the first time, but a storm develops at sea and she witnesses a young fisherman called Cadan (Tom Babbage) fall overboard. She uses the mystical powers of her voice to save him and their two worlds merge. When she returns, she finds her underwater realm in chaos and her younger brother missing, forcing her to make a devastating decision to protect the ones she loves.

Writer Lara Barbier (who is passionate about folktales, myths and legends and happens to be Cornwall based) and director Elgiva Field (a veteran of experimental theatre and working with children) have collaborated with singer-songwriter and composer Amie Parsons (who is best known as one half of the Cornish duo True Foxes) to produce an exquisite blend of the ordinary and the magical – using jaunty sea-shanties, Cornish folk-lore, puppetry, fishing traditions and the mystical world of mermaids. This is an inspirational creative team and their vision of a UK coastal setting in the 1830s, not only adds a creditable curveball by pitting the gritty life of the fishing community against the ethereal world of mermaids, but means that with the arrival of fishing trawlers and their subsequent disruption to the local fishing communities, they are raising environmental and ecological concerns too.

The multi-talented troubadour performers who are all able to sing and act whilst playing musical instruments – cello, accordion, guitar, banjo, box drum, penny whistle, fiddle and harmonica – bring the sensational folk music to life under the capable hands of on-stage musical director Jamie Ross. Annabelle Aquino as Merryn has a gloriously magical voice and together with Tom Babbage make a charming and sincere couple as their relationship blossoms. Zach Burns and Lucinda Freeburn are commendably versatile in their copious roles from supportive siblings to bumbling smugglers, but the show would benefit from a greater sense of danger or threat from the darker characters to give it a sense of balance. However a nod to the dialect coach who did a sterling job on those Cornish accents!

This family show is recommended for 4 year olds and upwards. They will be enchanted by the effervescent bubbles, the dreamy sea-folk gently swaying in the underwater currents, the most adorable puppet seal and a flapping seagull (courtesy of Naomi Oppenheim) in this whimsical, gentle, toe-tapping twist of a fairy tale.

THE LITTLE MERMAID

Watermill Theatre

Reviewed on 30th November 2025

by Sarah Milton

Photography by Pamela Raith

Previously reviewed at this venue:

CHARLEY’S AUNT | ★★★★★ | October 2025

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR | ★★★★★ | July 2025

THREE HENS IN A BOAT | ★★★★★ | May 2025

PIAF | ★★★★ | April 2025

THE KING’S SPEECH | ★★★★ | September 2024

BARNUM | ★★★★ | July 2024

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING | ★★★★ | April 2024

THE LORD OF THE RINGS | ★★★★★ | August 2023

THE LITTLE MERMAID

★★★½

“a truly heartwarming love song to female friendship”

Charlotte Merriam’s terrifically turbulent, teeming and joyful writing debut is brought to every shade of life on the Pleasance stage, by an ensemble cast of six that support one another’s skillful uproar. Produced by Siberian Lights & Rachel Kraftman Productions and directed by Jamie Garven, Dames is theatre which makes you want to dance, get drunk, tell your friends you love them and embrace the world outside the toilet, no matter how daunting it can be.

Stepping in and out of character, in a sort of Brechtian performance of femininity, the toilet scenario is also a metaphor for the process of undress which happens in a cubicle, akin to the one which the actors perform on stage, as they expose themselves in order to build relationships with the audience. In principle, this premise works really well, and added a clever comic touch, when Ginny, played by Bianca Stephens with excellent comic timing, talks to the audience as her real self, preparing herself to go in to the toilets in character. The toilets are this ground of rebirth, of blinking drunkenly into the eyes of a strange woman and finding out you could be friends, or that you’re in love. It’s a nice original twist which defies expectations, just as Dames describes itself as a ‘raucous revelation’.

Merriam herself plays the wonderfully dry Erin, whose double act with Bianca is a truly heartwarming love song to female friendship, in all its honestly beautiful ugliness. Arabella Neale’s Kate takes self-awareness to the next level, as she theatrically bemoans being thin and beautiful. On the surface, this is rather inane: but Neale’s portrayal manages to be haughty and highly loveable. She and Olivia Elsden both deliver performances which complexify Dames, as they retain an element of reserve. Melanie Stephens as Cardiff is the last to enter the toilets in a whirlwind of wanking and speaking frankly. Her no-shits-given swagger is the perfect counterpoint to Emily, played endearingly by Ellie Heydon, and Kate, whose waxing lyrical about halloumi and wholefoods is nigh on excessive. But they pull it off, because they’re fun and very watchable.

Joshua Bowles’ live music, often cued by the performers, is the perfect accompaniment to the antics. Reverberating round the echoic playing space, it feels like the club outside the toilets, from which they’ve all come to hide. April Dalton’s design is instantly eye-catching, a mass of streamers, glitter, iridescence and strewn toilet paper, crowned by a golden chair in the middle – the bog. When Erin is sick, she throws up feathers. The design, highlighted by Ryan Joseph Stafford’s lights, brings just the right amount of stylisation and other worldliness to Dames, which keeps the content raw, but still allows the audience to celebrate and enjoy what is being revealed.

Dames is brave, fun and novel. I liked watching it, yes – but there was something about it which also made me want to inhabit it. Structurally, it could have been better conceived, with some of the elements of repetition stripped back. As an experience, though, it was a treat: brimming with energy and sparkling with golden performances.

Reviewed by Eloise Poulton

Photography by Scott Rylander

Tag Archives: April Dalton

THE LITTLE MERMAID

★★★★

Watermill Theatre

THE LITTLE MERMAID

Watermill Theatre

★★★★

“an exquisite blend of the ordinary and the magical”