Shared Experience has announced full casting for the world première of Mermaid, a modern re-imagining of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy story The Little Mermaid.
Mermaid is a co-production between Shared Experience, renowned for its imaginative adaptations of literary classics, and Nottingham Playhouse.
Natalie Gavin will play Blue. Her theatre credits include Arthur Miller’s The Crucible at The Old Vic in 2014 and Alexi Kaye Campbell’s Bracken Moor, a Shared Experience production, at London’s Tricycle Theatre in 2013.
Polly Frame will play the Mother, Grandmer and Queen. Her credits include Viola and Sebastian in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, a Filter Theatre production at the Park Theatre in 2013, Christine in After Miss Julie at the Young Vic’s Maria Studio in 2012 and Grace in Sarah Kane’s Cleansed at the Arcola Theatre in 2005.
The cast also features Ritu Arya, Finn Hanlon, Miranda Mac Letten, Steve North, Amka Okafor and Sarah Twomey.
Writer and director Polly Teale transports the story to a contemporary setting in this production which is designed by Tom Piper who designed the poppies exhibition, Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, at the Tower of London.
Shared Experience has created a participation project around Mermaid and is recruiting young women between the age of 14 to 20 to perform on stage and create the sound of the mermaids' singing.
Mermaid will go on tour and, in each city the production visits, a chorus of young women will work with the company and become part of the production.
Mermaid opens at Nottingham Playhouse from Friday 13 March until Saturday 21 March. It then tours Leeds, Mold, Richmond, Cardiff, Southampton, Edinburgh, Watford and Oxford.