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

THE SCORE

Theatre Royal Haymarket

★★★1/2

“Cox, booming yet nuanced, is at a canter to reach the next cutting quip”

What’s The Score?

The sporting pun is not entirely misplaced. A major sequence in this uneven play of ideas sees the sycophantic court of Frederick the Great hosting a frantic wager with Carl, the son of composer Johann Sebastian Bach.

It’s a 1747 head-to-head between supreme monarch and ageing genius.

The king claims elderly Bach, freshly arrived from Leipzig, cannot improvise a three-part fugue based on Frederick’s own simple melody which has been worked into a knotty puzzle by his three stooge composers. It is, says one, “unfuguable”.

Carl says otherwise, betting his meagre funds and his standing in court on his father, who is sick, tired, unpredictable and cantankerous but still “the greatest composer in Europe”.

This showdown is typical of writer Oliver Cotton’s hodge-podge script. It is fun, elaborate in the set-up, and Brian Cox – who doesn’t just inhabit Bach but swallows him whole – lands the multiple pay-offs exquisitely.

But where does this fit into the play? Is it the highlight, a metaphor, or just some passing frippery? Does the play even know? The script roams freely across a number of topics – religion, morality, tyranny, creativity, inspiration – without really choosing a main course.

Its purpose, perhaps (and it is a grand and worthy one) is to provide a sufficiently gargantuan role for the operatic, rip-roaring Cox, who is on top form.

With his accented voice emerging like an eruption of lava from the depths, he leaps on the fluctuating states of Bach’s mind with an actor’s relish.

So much to choose from.

There’s indignant Bach, outraged by the king’s warmongering. There’s morose Bach, losing eyesight and significance. There’s courageous Bach, challenging the tyrannical king over his soldiers’ debauchery. There’s tormented Bach, everything coming from God but now troubled by doubt. Above all, there’s sitcom Bach – with his masterful pauses, hangdog putdowns and dry asides.

Cox, booming yet nuanced, is at a canter to reach the next cutting quip. Professional discipline dictates that he cannot yield to an obvious urge to eyeroll at the audience for another bite at the comedy cherry.

In his wake, the supporting cast do their best to keep up.

The expansionist king (Stephen Hagan) is affably dangerous, talking about Prussia First in terms that are disconcertingly relevant. His verbal duels with Bach, which anger the monarch but also give him a moment’s pause, represent the dramatic peak despite lacking real threat or menace.

A good show too from Jamie Wilkes as Carl, the son and foil, who does much of the thankless legwork supporting an ailing and disgruntled Bach. The brainless scheming of the three composers Christopher Staines, Toby Webster and Matthew Romain (as Quantz, Benda and Graun – “like a firm of bent solicitors”) is goofy in a Blackadderish way. And Peter De Jersey goes to town on French philosopher Voltaire playing him as Shrek’s Puss in Boots by way of ’Allo ’Allo.

Their court intrigue – all behind-the-hand whispers, elaborate bows and fake flattery – is aided considerably by Robert Jones’s sumptuous period costumes and stately sets in director Trevor Nunn’s easy-on-the-eye drama.

Curiously, and despite the title, music plays second fiddle here, with the cast miming unconvincingly at the harpsichord. But that is perhaps indicative of the production as a whole. Nearly, but not quite.

Tag Archives: Christopher Staines

THE LITTLE MERMAID

★★★★

Watermill Theatre

THE LITTLE MERMAID

Watermill Theatre

★★★★

“an exquisite blend of the ordinary and the magical”