A youth theatre company staging an adaptation of the mermaid story takes on the hardest technical problem in children's theatre: how to put the sea on a stage. The usual solutions are the interesting part — silks worked by a chorus, gauze layers lit from the side, puppetry for the creatures, and costume that suggests a tail without immobilising a young performer who has to be under the water in one scene and on a rock in the next.

The other reason companies choose the title is casting depth. Beyond the two leads it needs a large ensemble of sea creatures and court attendants, which lets a school troupe put most of its members on stage in a part that matters, and it offers two strong character roles that senior students compete for. Performances over consecutive evenings with an afternoon show, as listed here, are the pattern that lets a young cast manage the vocal load.

This page is the archive record of a production by a school thespian troupe at its own performing arts centre, staged in the past. The dates, times and venue belong to that season; the school publishes its current productions itself. City Home does not sell tickets, take registrations or manage listings, and keeps the listing as a record of what the community stage was doing.