The Little Mermaid shows on Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 and 4 p.m. at Hendry Hall, 815 East 11th St., North Vancouver. northvanplayers.ca.
Everyone's favourite mermaid Ariel makes a splash on stage at North Vancouver's historic Hendry Hall which has been transformed into an underwater kingdom.
The Little Mermaid is the pantomime offering this holiday season from North Vancouver Community Players and writer/director Peter Zednik.
Millennials might be familiar with the Disney version of the beloved tale, originally penned by Hans Christian Andersen more than 100 years ago, about a plucky mermaid, Ariel, who makes waves with a human prince, Eric, and earns new legs in a splashy spectacle.
The Community Players' production of The Little Mermaid is recognizable as the original story, explains Zednik, but it's heightened, fun and great for all ages. In making the fairy tale his own and accessible for all, Zednik has created a straightforward story for the kids to understand with some political jabs interspersed to keep the adults entertained.
"Everybody will know already a little mermaid who falls in love with a human and how is she ever going to reconcile the huge difference in their lives," says Zednik.
Finding the hidden message in the story and conveying that theme to the audience is an important part of the process for Zednik's who has helmed two other pantomimes.
"I think in this one (The Little Mermaid) it's that people should be allowed to be together and marry despite any differences there are in their cultures and traditions and so on," says Zednik.
Pantomimes, usually performed during the Christmas season, come from a long British music hall tradition dating back over a hundred years. In the very traditional ones, explains Zednik, there are all sorts of rules: there is always a hero, a villain, a couple of sidekicks to the villain who are also evil, certain amounts of cross-dressing and men playing traditional female roles and vice versa.
"A lot of people when they hear pantomime they think Marcel Marceau, the white face and the miming, but it's actually a very different tradition," says
Zednik. Audience participation is a key component that ties the pantomime together and makes for huge family entertainment value.
"Where the audience gets to boo the villain and warn them if a bad guy is coming, things like that," says Zednik, adding, that element of participation changes the theatre-going experience.
"It's great because often you are told to just sort of sit back and be quiet and pretend that something real is happening in front of you, which is a tremendous experience, but here you are allowed to break all that. You can talk directly to people on the stage. Not to give secrets away, but certain audience members will be escorted up onto the stage as well. It's just a lot of fun that way."
Zednik promises his adaptation of The Little Mermaid adheres to the traditional pantomime format with the slapstick, the big production numbers and the cross-dressing. At its core there are the familiar characters in Zednik's interpretation of the fable, Ariel, of course, and Dame Ursula, the sea witch, along with an eccentric supporting cast of sea creatures including Lobster Thermidor, Barry Cuda and Barbie Doll-Fin.
The title role is played by 16-year-old Claire Paterson, an Argyle secondary student who undoubtedly fit the bill as Ariel during auditions for the show.
"She had all the qualities that I was looking for," says Zednik. "She could be very sweet and naïve without it looking forced, but she could also be strong and courageous. I just think the little girls in the audience will love her."
Conversely there is the outlandish Dame Ursula who is portrayed by Mitchell Mackay, a community players' perennial favourite.
"We get a lot of requests each year that he be in the show because he is so funny, hysterical and over the top," describes Zednik of Mackay.
Mackay, a professional costumer who has designed for the TV series Once Upon a Time, made his own outrageous octopus outfit for The Little Mermaid and created the other characters' costumes - and the elaborate sets.
Zednik says recreating an underwater world at Hendry Hall was a challenge for the small local theatre group, but credited Mackay's resourcefulness for being able to pull it off. The costumes, made from "terrific, showy" fabrics, add another element of vibrancy to the show. Read: Sea of sequins. As for the under-the-sea illusion, Zednik describes the sets as watery and shiny.
Zednik conceived his
Mermaid panto two years ago, explaining how it takes a long time to write from scratch. The impetus for the show started as a challenge of sorts.
A couple of years ago, after another panto Zednik penned, Rapunzel, wrapped, one of his cast members went to New York, watched The Little Mermaid on Broadway and came back and told Zednik about the breathtaking show.
"And she said, 'Of course you couldn't possible do The Little Mermaid at Hendry Hall, because how are you going to have everybody swimming,'" recalls Zednik. "And that got me thinking. And I just loved the story and started from there."
While putting the finishing touches on his latest panto Zednik also pulled off his greatest directing achievement to date, taking home top prize at Theatre B.C.'s Annual Provincial Drama Festival in Kamloops this summer. Zednik, who won best director and best set design, directed the North Vancouver Community Players' production of Rabbit Hole, a drama that deals with the ways family members survive a major loss, which was wellreceived by audiences and critics alike.
Zednik says Rabbit Hole is a deviation from what audiences expect of him.
"I'm usually associated with the Christmas pantomime because I write them and direct them," says Zednik. "I think people enjoy them and what they think I can do is a lot of physical comedy and musical numbers and so on. So Rabbit Hole is the complete opposite. It's a dark family drama. Very teary. Very emotional. I liked that I could challenge myself and try something completely different that nobody expected me to do."
Proceeds from The Little Mermaid are going to the charity Camp Kerry, which provides bereavement services for young families where one of the family members has been diagnosed with a terminal disease. In fact it was Zednik's experience with Rabbit Hole, which involves the tragic death of a four-year-old, that inspired him to support Camp Kerry.
"I stayed with that show for over half a year, through the whole festival process, and when I heard about this charity I guess it just struck that chord in me," says Zednik.
Zednik is hoping The Little Mermaid is as well-received as his panto Rapunzel, which is now in production in the UK and Australia, saying it's "kind of fun" that a theatre show conceived in North Vancouver is being shown on other continents.
