The Little Mermaid on stage proves the fairytale has legs

We are under water. Above our heads, a youth dives down through the sunlit ripples on the ocean’s surface, hunting for pearls. Stinging jellyfish, glowing neon, electric, attack him. Stunned, he expels his saved breath; is drowning. One of the mermaids peeping out at the scene from a rocky hideaway swims towards him with a bubble of air, ignoring the warnings of her sisters…

In her new, updated adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s 1837 fairytale, Theresa Heskins, the New Vic’s artistic director, aided by long-term circus collaborator and co-director Vicki Dela Amedume, transport us beneath and above the waves through a combination of puppetry, design, aerial displays, music, dance and that most potent ingredient: the collective imagination of the audience. Even though all the apparatus are on show – the wires, the traps, the counter-balance stage crew member racing up a ladder to lower the swimmer, and down it to raise him – still we believe.

On the beach, Coralie, the eponymous little mermaid, now tailless, comically finds her land-legs at a beach party soundtracked by a DJ with a laptop. Her pearl-diver turns out to be a rich, entitled prince called Caspian, who speaks mock-hipster patois with his Instagramming friends and … has plans for trading mermaids into captivity. The tone shifts.

A second encounter with the vengeful Sea Witch, rising and writhing on seaweedy ropes, summoning swift darting snakes, is frightening – but Coralie and Caspian outface dangers, parley with Poseidon and find unity in diversity through a mermaid-human sea-sharing initiative.

At times, in its first half, Heskins’s script felt becalmed, but the slow set-up gave the second half emotional depth, as did “fintastic” performances from the 14-strong actor-musician cast, with special mention to Rhiannon Skerritt’s Coralie, Darcy Braimoh’s Caspian, Harrison Sweeney’s Sea Witch and Arun Ghosh’s musical compositions.

The Little Mermaid is at New Vic theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme, until 24 January

Photograph by Andrew Billington