Funday Times

The Little Mermaid
By Sachie Fernando
The music was splendid, the direction was exceptional and the cast was…. Brilliant. All together the play was one of the best. The play was “The Little Mermaid” staged by the Musaeus College students on the 10th and the 11th of September at the Bishops College auditorium.

The story was an original fairy tale, ‘Under the sea’, which most of the children around the world have seen in cartoons, dramas, movies, books etc. But this time the Museads performed it in class.

The story is based on the little mermaid; Arial lives harmoniously with the rest of her friends and under the great care of her beloved father. Until one day she rescues a prince who gets caught up in a storm and finds an unsaid love for him. So does the prince with Arial’s charming voice. In the process of finding her true love she gets mired by the cunning witch; the lifelong enemy of Arial’s father. Arial inks an agreement with the witch. That is, the witch will turn Arial in to a human for three days but she will take Arial’s voice in return. All the same Arial must reach the prince and kiss him within these three days. If she succeeds she will remain a human but if she doesn’t she will stay under the nasty witch forever.

But nevertheless the drama ends up with the perfect happy ending with the princess being wedded to the prince. The director and scriptwriter is Sylvanna Wille Ferreira. She had spent more than four months conducting the practices and running all other chores. According to her, the hardest task was auditioning the students. “It took two months for me to choose the right people”.

But the sweat is never in vain as her choices are perfect. The performances of the students were so good that at times the audience forgot the fact that they are children. All together the cast is 250, all from grade five and four.

All the main characters on stage were on their début yet they seemed as professionals when putting on humor, romance, anger, jealousy and even passion very logically on stage. The main character Arial was done by Nimasha Pereira. The other cast members were Vinushi Wickramarachchi(Sebastian ), Shamika Rajapaksha( Scuttle) and Nethmi de Silva( The Prince). All of them added a variety of forte to the play.

“The most wonderful time for me was the time we spent during the practices”, said Nimasha and the rest agreed. The performers were in exquisite costumes, added extra flare to the outcome. And also the excellent music, which had been adopted from the original music from overseas, made the play more dramatic and exclusive by all means. The choral director for the play was Ms. Subashini Thalwatta a music teacher of Museas College.

The lights and sounds, which gave Ooohs! and Aaahs! among the audience was led by Dhammika Kaldera It made easier for Sylvanna Wille Ferreira to create ‘the water world’ on stage with the help of these men. It was a moment to cherish not only for Sylvanna but also for every one who was on stage, behind the stage and in front of the stage. It was a moment when we all were ‘under the sea’.

Back to Mirror Magazine