East Van Panto: The Little Mermaid reverses the underwater tale, and gives it a romantic twist
Ghazal Azarbad and Amanda Sum talk dolphin squeaks, dastardly villains, and the messed-up messages in the 1989 cartoon
Amanda Sum in East Van Panto: The Little Mermaid. Photo by Emily Cooper
The Cultch presents East Van Panto: The Little Mermaid from November 16 to January 1
GHAZAL AZARBAD is feeling surprisingly torn about not playing the villain at this year’s East Van Panto: The Little Mermaid. Last year, in the Panto’s Alice in Wonderland, she played the evil Queen of Hearts (aka Jess Cheetos); this year, she’s plays the love interest—a gentle, teenage mer-person who lives in the waters of Burrard Inlet.
“I don't get booed this year,” Azarbad says with a laugh, sharing a call with costar Amanda Sum between rehearsals for the hugely popular holiday tradition. “It’s something everyone should experience at least once! I mean, it took some getting used to. Just sonically having a bunch of people boo you—if you’re having a particularly fragile or sensitive day you can take it to heart. But you have to remember that they're enjoying it so much and the booing is coming out of love and out of the glee just being there.
“So part of me will miss that, but it’s very refreshing to have the audience on my side this year!”
Instead, Dawn Petten—who has played everything from lovably goofy cows to an adorable Alice—will play the bad guy, the dastardly octopus Ursula. Take that as just one sign that Theatre Replacement’s East Van Panto: The Little Mermaid, directed by Meg Roe, is turning everything you know about the fairy tale upside-down.
Instead of a mermaid who dreams of walking the earth on two legs, the Panto posits a young New Brighton Beach busker (played by Sum, an indie singer in her own right) who wants to be a mermaid. Sum says her “dorky East Van gal” falls for Azarbad’s mer-person, Eeerk, and so dives into an underwater world for this year’s rendition.
The original Hans Christian Andersen mermaid tale, and its Disney musical cartoon version, needed a good subverting, Sum observes—playwright Sonja Bennett (who penned last year’s hilarious Wonderland) overturning its more unsettling messages.
“Looking back at the original, it has such a strange meaning,” Sum says. “How was it I watch that as a little girl?! If you remove the fluff and colour, then it’s this girl who loses her voice for some boy! So having it written differently and led differently really makes me feel good, and it makes it feel good that that’s what we’re sharing to the kids of East Van too.”
The pair adds that love isn’t the only thing that pulls Ariel into the water in this version.
“Ariel is very environmentally driven, and that kind of instigates this yearning to be in the water,” Sum explains.
Ghazal Azarbad
The fact that Ariel and her new undersea friends will have to ward off a purple slime takes on larger climate symbolism as well. “Ursula has a motivation from her point of view—the reason the sea is so polluted is because of humans, and most of her anger is in the pollution of the ocean,” Azarbad explains, then adds of her previous villain: “Last year Jess Cheetos just wanted to screw everyone for her own benefit, but here we see the bigger villain is climate change. It’s surprisingly moving.”
While Azarbad won’t be deflecting boos this year, she has other challenges: her Eerk channels a distinct dolphin squeak. Take that as more proof that this is an actor with impressive range. Just a few months ago, Azarbad was playing one of Shakespeare’s most famous roles, Juliet, in the tent at Bard on the Beach. Now she’s setting her voice to cetacean squeal.
“I did a lot of research on dolphin sonic sounds,” she says proudly, adding she’s stocked up on tea and honey so she won’t run out for this seven-week run at the York Theatre. “I've had to do some warmups just to make sure I can hit the right pitch.” (The actor plays another fishy character, named Flounder, in this year’s Panto, too, but she wants to keep its no-doubt-over-the-top attributes a secret.)
Her character, and Eerk’s relationship with Ariel, mark some new territory for the Panto on its 10th anniversary, the pair point out.
“I think this might be the first love story we've seen onstage at the Panto,” Ghazal says. “It’s definitely the first onstage romance moment, and Meg, Amanda, and I want to craft it quite openly and purely.
“There’s a lot of leadup to a smooch that Eerk and Ariel have,” she hints. “So, yes, there’s ‘Look behind you!’ and a lot of booing the villain. But this year the audience participation is a leadup to a kiss, too, and that will be another little gem.”
Dawn Petten and Amanda Sum in East Van Panto: The Little Mermaid. Photo by Emily Cooper
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