The Little Mermaid Pantomime Script Spotlight
Shell yeah, this one's a keeper!
The Little Mermaid is a title audiences arrive already fond of, which is both its gift and its problem. Ours works because it earns the familiarity rather than coasting on it: Octavia, the sea-witch villain, is the kind of baddie who savours every boo she gets from the audience and asks for more, Dame Beluga, the Royal Singing Teacher, has devoted her entire career to saving the wails, Lobster Theodore holds more honorary titles than anyone has time to listen to, and Ariel's longing for the surface is written as something she genuinely feels rather than a plot point waiting to be resolved. The comedy and the story pull in the same direction throughout, and the underwater setting gives the ensemble real colour to work with at every level of the cast.
Synopsis
Deep beneath the ocean, in the underwater kingdom of the Coral, Princess Ariel has an extraordinary voice and a fascination with the world above the waves that her mother, Queen Marina, cannot bring herself to share. When a storm sends Prince Evan's ship into trouble, Ariel surfaces to rescue him and the two share a song on the shore, beginning something neither of them quite knows what to do with.
Back underwater, Ariel's aunt Octavia has been watching. A sea-witch with her eye on Marina's trident and her ear for Ariel's voice, Octavia offers Ariel a bargain: legs, in exchange for her singing. Ariel takes the deal. What follows involves a stolen voice that keeps escaping to the wrong people, a wedding that very much should not happen, and a finale in which two kingdoms finally learn to live together without fear.
What the script looks like in practice
Prince Evan has just been pulled from a shipwreck and washed ashore. His father, King Godfrey, is not impressed:
King Godfrey: 'You look like you've been dragged through the ocean.'
Prince Evan: 'I have been dragged through the ocean.'
King Godfrey: 'Well, don't do it again!'
Who this script suits
With 12 principal roles and four featured supporting parts, The Little Mermaid sits in the medium cast range. The ensemble plays mermaids, sailors, sea creatures, guards and jellyfish across two acts, with the underwater scenes offering plenty of scope for costume and staging invention.
The principal roles are well spread. Ariel and Evan carry the romantic plot; Octavia and her henchmen Slip and Slap carry the comedy villain thread. Dame Beluga, Scampi, Queen Marina and Lobster Theodore provide laughs and heart throughout. The Spirit of the Sea opens and closes scenes in rhyming verse, a role that suits a confident performer who enjoys a direct relationship with the audience.
The voice-swapping sequence in Act Two, where Ariel's recovered voice keeps attaching itself to the wrong character, is exactly the kind of ensemble set piece that rewards good comic timing from the whole company. Groups comfortable with a bit of physical silliness alongside a proper story will get a lot from it.
The Little Mermaid Reviews
The Little Mermaid is new to our catalogue. We'll be sharing what groups have to say once the first productions have come off stage.
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