LITTLE M

The Place

★★★½

“with refinement, this heartfelt script has potential to really soar”

Have you ever felt out of place, not knowing why? ‘Little M’ lovingly transforms Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ into a tender celebration of gender-diverse identities. Aimed at children but with something for everyone, this production is touching, beautiful, and deeply affirming. While there’s room for refinement, it deserves to be seen by everyone – just like Little M.

Caught between worlds, Little M is different. When a suitcase of shimmering human gowns drifts into the grotto, M delights in how wearing them makes them feel – until Grandmother swiftly confiscates everything. Grandmother urges M to focus on their impending coming-of-age ceremony. Excited to finally receive their oyster shells, M longs to place them on their tail like their sister, not their throat as is custom. Once again, Grandmother insists on conforming. When the big day arrives, celebration quickly becomes discomfort as M’s oyster necklace feels suffocating. In a moment of courage, M flees for the human world, starting a journey of self-discovery that leads them to their truth.

Luke Skilbeck (writer and co-director) and Anders Duckworth (co-director) adapt Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale, using the mermaid’s liminal existence as a poignant metaphor for gender-diverse experience. With sensitivity and soul, the story affirms gender-diverse lives as natural and beautiful. It explores profound themes with striking emotional clarity for a children’s show. The ending is a compelling reminder of why stories like this are still so important, offering hope and belonging to those who need it most.

However, not everything lands. The mix of on- and offstage voices, while conceptually bold, sometimes disrupts pacing. Mid-conversation shifts between dialogue and dance feel a little disjointed in places. The beachcombing crab is amusing but underdeveloped. A couple of plot points lack clarity, such as M’s first encounter with the Prince and the delayed significance of the multicolour chokers. Still, with refinement, this heartfelt script has potential to really soar.

Duckworth’s choreography blends mime with a range of dance styles, including Indian classical, ballet and contemporary, to craft a rich, expressive narrative. The child-friendly emphasis on accessible movement is balanced by moments of subtlety. A standout moment is the inventive two-person witch, lending the character an eerie, otherworldly presence. Still, some moments – like two somewhat static swimming sequences – would benefit from more dynamic choreography to really elevate the piece.

Nicole Raymond and NikNak’s composition and sound design drive the emotional landscape, elevating the choreography with precision and flair. Their score moves fluidly between rhythmic drive and atmospheric subtlety, using music and ambient soundscapes to shift the energy and deepen the storytelling.

Dancers Jose Funnell, Áine Reynolds, Naissa Bjørn, and Tylee Jones bring vivid characterisation to the stage, highlighting their versatility across styles and emotional registers. Their expressive performances make each character feel fully realised and relatable, though a touch more precision, such as finishing the lines, would sharpen the overall impact.

E. M. Parry’s design – supported by set design associate Kit Hinchliffe, costume associate Eve Oakley, and puppet co-designer Scamp Niemz – is out of this world. The rich and imaginative visual world conjures sea and shore with striking simplicity. Staging, costumes, puppets, props, and set feel meticulously crafted yet effortlessly fluid. Repurposed sea debris evokes the ocean with texture and authenticity while gesturing cleverly to the climate crisis, finding unexpected beauty in the most mundane objects. Carey Chomsoonthorn’s lighting design is stunning, conjuring land and sea with beauty. Whether illuminating the serenity of the shoreline or the characters’ inner turmoil, the lighting adds depth and texture with remarkable sensitivity. The overall design effect is magical.

‘Little M’ is an imaginative, emotionally resonant piece inviting audiences of all ages to engage with complex themes. While there’s room for refinement, its spirit sings, honest and undeniable. This is bold, beautiful, and necessary theatre, and I’m excited to see how it grows.

LITTLE M

The Place

Reviewed on 24th October 2025

by Hannah Bothelton

Photography by Camilla Greenwell

Previously reviewed at this venue:

JAZZ CONVERSATIONS | ★★★★★ | September 2024

LITTLE M

★★★

“a successful ode to community strength and resilience in the face of larger forces”

Deptford Baby is an anarchic, freewheeling, and joyous expression of local pride in the face of the rising tide of gentrification, inflected with the language of Southeast London’s community, returning following a 2022 debut in Deptford’s Matchstick Piehouse.

The performance begins before the play proper starts, with DJ Tommy Tappah playing a selection of UK garage and house tunes to the audience as they enter, setting the scene of Deptford High Street on a balmy summer’s evening, with people milling around on the street, enjoying a drink and soaking up the sun. Tommy Tappah’s call and response interplay – ‘when I say Deptford, you say baby’; ‘when I say Chino, you say Igwe’ – helping to create a party atmosphere that, in a room without seats, would certainly have resulted in dancing.

Writer-performer Chukwudi Onwere plays Chino Igwe, a Deptford local and aspiring novelist, who is walking down the High Street on the way to submit his Master’s thesis on Black British History, when suddenly the area is hit by an earthquake and then a tidal wave, catalysing a series of picaresque encounters with a love interest, giant fish, elderly relatives. Culminating in a climactic battle by the residents of Deptford and beyond, led by Chino, to defend their neighbourhood. ‘See it, fight it, restore your community’ is a refrain throughout the piece, and above all Deptford Baby is a celebration of locality, of the people and places that make an area special, and the need to fight to protect it.

These events are visually rendered by Carey Chomsoonthorn’s spectacular lighting design, which makes the most of the sparse staging, using flashing and coloured lights to evoke earthquakes, floods, and giant fish. Onwere’s performance is strong, and his portrayal of Chino’s Nigerian father and aunty are very well received by the audience. He throws himself around the small space, victim of many of misfortunes, and in this is well directed by Marc Pouni. Tommy Tappah’s mimed interventions and reactions to the action on stage provide an enjoyable interplay with the main action, and suggest that, should he want to, he’s ready to step out from behind the decks and into centre stage.

The rapid-fire nature of the play is one of its strengths. We are repeatedly told that Chino thrills the Deptford community with his adventure stories, and Deptford Baby’s structure surely echoes this, running through many floridly described, outlandish situations that act as an allegory for the external pressures of gentrification bearing down on Deptford. While I feel that some topics could have been broached differently, knife crime for example is touched on as a comedic example of his grandfather’s bravery, whose traumatic past is likewise dealt with as a sort of footnote, overall Deptford Baby is a successful ode to community strength and resilience in the face of larger forces, that is both thought-provoking and funny.

Tag Archives: Carey Chomsoonthorn

LITTLE M

★★★½

The Place

LITTLE M

The Place

★★★½

“with refinement, this heartfelt script has potential to really soar”