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
