Mermaid

Beneath the ocean's waves there is no death or pain or separation

Above, the modern world is beset with war, poverty and desire

On her sixteenth birthday, a mermaid rises up to the surface

And leaves her childhood behind forever when she falls in love with a mortal prince

She knows that she can no longer live at the bottom of the ocean

But must she destroy herself in order to be loved?

First performed by Shared Experience and Nottingham Playhouse, 2015

Shared Experience is renowned for its thrilling adaptations of literary classics

Plundering Hans Christian Andersen's haunting tale for its dark, erotic, mythic power, writer and director Polly Teale transports the story to a spell-binding contemporary setting

The production invites young women between the age of 14 to 20 to join the actors and perform on stage to create the sound of the mermaids' magical singing

Using this choir of young women to create an unearthly musical landscape, Teale conjures the magical world of Mermaids to empower their sense of self and to challenge myths about femininity