Watershed Productions in association with Little Angel Theatre were at Manchester's HOME Theatre today to perform an adaptation of Julia Donaldson's The Singing Mermaid to a group of expectant toddlers and their parents. The production ran at 55 minutes without interval which was probably the top limit for this particular age group, and indeed, there were several restless and listless audience members from about half-way through onwards.
The set looked brilliant. A Victorian style circular dais of a stage with footlights, bunting and lights, ready for the circus to be performed on. Auditorium music and the fact that the bunting continued into the audience also was lovely. There was a lively and expectant atmosphere. The problem with this set lay in the fact that when the scenes required to be either on a beach or under water, it was not particularly successful and a more immediate visual would have been preferable.
The three actors/actresses were also the puppeteers and some of the puppets were superb, and were handled proficiently, whilst a couple looked a little strange or off-putting. Sadly this was the case for the puppet used for the 'protagonist' of this story, the mermaid herself. She looked weird and scraggy, not at all beautiful and graceful, and did nothing to really endear herself to us from her puppet alone. Fortunately, the handlers were experienced and brought her to life, but with anyone else, it would have fallen flat I feel.
The harmony singing was lovely, but all the songs were very samey sadly, and although they were catchy with easy refrains, the language used within them was too adult (raison d'etre being the finest case in point) and did not really engage or involve the children in any of them. Had the cast been able to come down into the auditorium it might have helped.
The 'magic' as jot magic and was too obvious, and many of the puppet routines during the long central section were too long. A small boy in front of me kept asking his dad, 'where is the mermaid?!'
Overall there was not enough comedy/slapstick in order to engage the youngsters, and the very "nice" nature of the whole was just a bit too saccharine with no real jeopardy or suspense in the tale at all, making the end a little bit of a wet blanket.
Reviewer - Alastair Zyggu
On - 23.5.26
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