The Mermaid

Based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, Den lille Havfrue [The Little Mermaid].

Havfruen, a collaboration between the Danish theatre Kaleidoskop, the Swedish company Cirkus Cirkör and Theater der Welt, had its premiere in May 2005. The performance, which built a convincing bridge between new circus and theatre, was an innovative breakthrough in Danish performing arts. At the moment, work is being done to mount a new, extended international tour in 2006/07.

Direction: Katrine Wiedemann
Circus direction: Tilde Björfors, Cirkus Cirkör
Scenography: Martin Tulinius

Without words, solely through body and music, Katrine Wiedemann and the performers from Cirkus Cirkör re-create Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale about The Little Mermaid who fatefully falls in love with an earth-bound prince.  The mermaid is transformed into a human being to be near her beloved, but must ultimately give up the dream of her prince.  Nevertheless, she is incapable of killing him, even to save herself.

The performance glides elegantly between humour, exuberance, and pain in a tremendously physical, “new circus” interpretation.  Mermaids swim through the air in gentle, playful strokes, and a dance in the castle is staged as a cheerful, leaping ballet on a trampoline.

With pure corporeal poetry, Katrine Wiedemann shows the joyous power of love and the horrible pain of unhappy love in the scene in which the prince meets his princess.  Before the mermaid’s eyes, the prince and princess walk step by step into love from each their own side of a line.  They find happiness; she is destroyed in the same scene. 

Wiedemann has previously worked with Cirkus Cikör. The point of Havfruen is to express the story through the body.  Even in scenes that can be physically dangerous for those performing them.   Andersen’s fairy tale contains so many powerful emotions that the body is the best tool for communicating those feeling directly to the audience.
Havfruen was created with an international tour in mind.  It was done in collaboration with the international theatre festival Theater der Welt in 2005.
It is performed on a mobile circus stage. Among other things, it makes use of a 32 square meter trampoline and a 150 square meter acrobat floor. There are 12 circus artistes, singers, musicians and actors on the stage. 

Review Excerpts

“A poetic, acrobatic performance, a yearning between land and sea, a magically visual theatre.” 
Stuttgarter Zeitung (DE)

“... a wonderfully unspoiled ensemble that gives the audience more than just momentary pleasure...”
Stuttgarter Nachrichten (DE)

“A modern little mermaid well worth the dip … a poetic and a modern interpretation of a national treasure … A modern fairy tale with beauty and knife-point audacity.” 
Svenska Dagbladet (SE)

”…you are completely captivated … circus and fairy tale go hand in hand.”
 Dagens Nyheter (SE)

”With light, sound and circus techniques that abolish the law of gravity, they depict a dreamlike tableau that makes the audience gasp … something far beyond the ordinary …”
Länstidningen Södertälje (SE)

”The new circus version of Andersen’s little mermaid breaks through the confines of the elements in playful air-swimming, cool shanty-acrobatics and tear-stained tragedy – and adds a new dimension to Danish theatre.”
Politiken (DK)

International Tours

South Bank Centre, London/GB, December 23., 2006 - January 7., 2007
Wiener Festwoche, Vienna, May 2006
Aarhus Musikhus, Aarhus, May 2006
Dansens Hus, Stockholm, Dec. 2005 – Jan. 2006
Theaterhaus, Stuttgart, June 2005.