The Little Mermaid. Many of you are sitting there thinking you know the story; you might even be humming “Under the Sea” to yourself. What you may be unaware that the Disney like with many of its miscellany of movies drew inspiration from fairy tales, predominantly those written by Hans Christen Andersen. However, unlike their Disney counterparts there are no cute singing crustaceans, instead many of the stories had a darker edge.
The Blue Room’s adaptation of the text, explores this darker side, looking closer at the psychological elements of the text, whilst transporting the action to Australian suburbia. This is not a cheerful techni-coloured production, though it’s also not without humour – much of which comes from the interplay between the characters of Grace and her mother Nina.
Grace, the “mermaid” of the production, is brought superbly to life by dancer and performer Jacinta Larcombe, who manages to perfectly capture the characters child like naivety and enthusiasm. There was also a sense of melancholy to her performance, especially the points in the play, which touched on Grace’s father who presumably died at sea. Indeed, Larcombe’s performance is perhaps the highlight of the production, it was subtle and nuanced, whilst her background as a dancer, brought the right amount of physicality to the role.
Likewise, Georgia King brought the character of Nina to life in all her cringe worthy glory, the character a near perfect example of bad parenting. It’s surely Parenting 101 that you don’t try and sleep with your daughters crush. With one eye on her past exploits and popularity Nina tries to live vicariously through her daughter whilst also attempting to be a disciplinary figure. There are times when the character borders on cliché but for the most part King manages to steer the character away from being too much of a stereotype.
Whilst Ben Gill put in a good performance, I felt the character of James could have been developed further, and that the relationships formed between his character and the two women were hurried, and as such are a little unbelievable. The move from stranger to love interest to heart breaker was all a bit too sudden for me.
On the whole The Little Mermaid is an enjoyable production, with a great central performance from Larcombe as Grace. Despite it’s brevity, it manages to engage you as an audience member, leaving you wanting more, and has you asking questions. Whilst the play could be developed and expanded upon, it already manages to explore and examine successfully a number of themes and ideas. An interesting and engaging piece.
———-
