Grace (Jacinta Larcomb) is a strange girl. This is apparent the moment we encounter her, dressed in nothing but cotton underwear, dancing by herself at the front of the stage as the audience take their seats. From such an intimate opening, The Little Mermaid travels only deeper into the strange but utterly recognisable lives of these ghosts of Australian suburbia: ill-fitting teenage Grace; her floundering mother Nina (Georgia King), young enough to be mistaken for a sister or housemate and terrified of the time she won’t be; and James (Ben Gill), Grace’s cool and quiet, but equally hopeless, love interest.
The Little Mermaid is a devised play, the script created in collaboration with the cast through improvisation, free-flow writing and discussion, among other methods. The basis for the story, as one might guess, is the fairy tale of the same name, but the original Hans Christian Anderson version, not the Disney. Here, consequence is more consequential, characters are darker, and happy endings are purely incidental. The result is a playful, captivating work with something of a sombre undertone.
A great benefit of the devising process are the ideas that can be generated through collaborative invention. Stick a good group of heads together – particularly heads like the one belonging to director Ian Sinclair, a Wet Weather Ensemble member who is well-versed and highly talented in these matters – and let them play, and the resulting ideas will often (not always) verge on the ingenious.
Simple, stripped back elements are used in The Little Mermaid to great effect. A fan, bubbles, fluro green fishnet stockings – each are cleverly employed in supremely striking ways. The set, arranged along a long stage, consists of a deckchair to one side and a rectangular black block to the other, and with the help of Chris Donnelly’s lighting, Laura Jane Lowther’s (AKA Kucka) sound design and Sinclair’s directing, scenes shifts seamlessly between a suburban backyard, a teenager’s bedroom, a video arcade, a school ball, a jetty. In every scene the action is acutely focused, holding its audience tight.
Sometimes, however, we are left wanting. Which brings me to a hazard of devised work, as I see it, which lies in content not included in the final cut. So much can be generated during the devising process that the subsequent trimming and refining process leaves loose ends previously held together by cut ideas. These concepts remain in the collaborators’ heads, making it difficult for them to spot the problem, but the audience can sense an echo. Because of this, there are aspects of The Little Mermaid that feel undercooked. Elements are introduced but underexplored, while our gaze is held on scenes and ideas that seem not quite consequential enough. There is a whiff of the in-joke around some of the symbolism used, and places where the audience is held very slightly at bay, albeit unintentionally.
What brings us back, again and again, is Jacinta Larcomb’s Grace. While King and Gill to different extents suffer from levels of self-consciousness and under-development in their characters, Larcomb is captivating. A dancer by background, she is in complete control of her character’s physicality at all times, and an absolute delight to watch.
Most problems in The Little Mermaid can be attributed to the immaturities of a brand new work. Some of it could even be put down to opening night jitters. Reworked, The Little Mermaid has the potential to be an astounding piece of theatre. It’s a simple story told simply, with a collection of ideas and visual elements that set it far apart. Not all of this can be put down the devising process. What it can be put down to is good collaboration among some very talented collaborators.
Rating: 3 ½ stars out of 5
The Blue Room Theatre presents
The Little Mermaid
Director: Ian Sinclair
Performers/Co-devisors: Georgia King, Jacinta Larcombe and Ben Gill
Producer: Sophie Fosdick-McGrath
Scenographer: Shaye Preston
Costume Design: Shinead Gecas
Sound Design: Laura Jane Lowther (from Kucka)
Lighting: Chris Donnelly
The Blue Room Theatre, Perth Cultural Centre, Northbridge
20 August – 7 September
