THE LITTLE MERMAID

The fascinating water world and the permanent attraction of the creatures living in the deepness of the sea are presented at Tandarica Animation Theater in a charming, colorful show full of mystery.
Different types of puppets and live actors are rewriting the little mermaids love story with a human prince. She has to fight against the evil forces and prejudice to defend her love and her dream of living in a different world with trees, birds, mountain heights, greenery and above all to have an eternal soul that lives on in Heaven. Humans have a much shorter lifespan than the merfolks 300 years, and when mermaids die they turn into sea foam and cease to exist. Instead,"human beings, on the contrary, have a soul which lives forever, lives after the body has been turned to dust. It rises up through the clear, pure air beyond the glittering stars. As we rise out of the water, and behold all the land of the earth, so do they rise to unknown and glorious regions which we shall never see", said the grandmother to the little mermaid. The little mermaid lives in a Utopian underwater kingdom with her father the sea king, her grandmother, her sisters, the dolphin Delphi. When a mermaid turns 15, she is allowed to swim to the surface to watch the world above. When the Little Mermaids turn comes, she ventures to the surface, sees a ship with a handsome prince, and falls in love with him. A great storm hits, and the Little Mermaid saves the prince from a near-drowning. Her only possibility to stay on earth is if a human prince declares his eternal love. A sea witch named Caracuda wants to be the princes bride. Finally, all  the evil plans are thwarted, and the two lovers get married, living happily on earth. But, who are the mermaids? A mermaid is a mythological aquatic creature with a female human head and torso and the tail of an aquatic animal such as a fish or dolphin. Various cultures throughout the world have similar figures. Much like sirens, mermaids would sometimes sing to people and gods and enchant them, distracting them from their work and causing them to walk off the deck or run their ships aground. Andersens heroine falls in love with a human prince, but the end is a tragic one: they do not marry.  The show at Tandarica Animation Theater reminds of Disneys cartoon. The meditation on spiritual values becomes a conventional story in which the heroine is rewarded with a human marriage.Andresens mermaid is lured to the surface by two complementary, but separable impulses: her romantic love for a human prince and the moral desire of being immortal. The Little Mermaid suffers when the prince gets married to another girl, whom he considers his saver. Our heroine refuses to kill the prince (as in the legend) sacrificing herself and her love forever, and staying as a captive in the water.  Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) was a Danish author and poet, famous for his fairy tales. Among his best-known stories are "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", "The Snow Queen", "The Little Mermaid", "Thumbelina", "The Little Match Girl", "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Red Shoes". During Andersens lifetime he was feted by royalty and acclaimed for having brought joy to children across Europe. His fairy tales have been translated into over 150 languages and continue to be published in millions of copies all over the world, and inspired many other works.