The Little Mermaid

April 16 - May 16, 2010

Friday nights at 7:00, Saturday & Sunday matinees at 3:00

School vacation week matinees; Tue 4/20 - Fri 4/23, at 1:00

ASL/AD: Friday May 14 at 7:00 & Sunday May 16 at 3:00

Danger threatens the dreamy peace of the Merpeople’s world within their reef, an unnatural restlessness disturbs their waters. The youngest daughter of the Sea King, our Little Mermaid, longs to know what lies above the ocean’s waves. Her curiosity pulls her to the surface, where she rescues a drowning human prince and falls in love with him. Her sisters are incredulous: how can she have gone all soft for a human? (They prefer their men with fins.) But her grandmother understands both the overwhelming compulsion to chart new waters and the perils that lie in going where you don’t belong. However, her gentle warnings are for naught. The Little Mermaid knows she must see the truth with her own eyes. Courageously, she accepts the evil Sea Witch’s dreadful bargain, leaving home to follow her heart into a land where the sun is warm and the atmosphere is light, where humans shed saltwater tears and love can speak louder than words. We discover—literally—that transformation is painful and to attain true love demands sacrifice. More faithful than Disney to Hans Christian Andersen’s original fairy tale (but with a happier ending), this adaptation tempers the bittersweet of loss, growth, and change with humor and the rippling rhythms of the tides.