Philippine adaptation of Little Mermaid brings Werklund Centre under the sea

You've never seen Little Mermaid like this before.

Calgary Flipside Theatre Collective is putting on a Filipino musical adaptation of the classic tale with the help of Forte Musical Theatre, in association with the Philippine Festival Council of Alberta.

The script presents an alternative to the heroine Ariel, introducing “Jewel” as the mermaid who yearns for a life above sea level. This stage adaptation was first produced in the 1990s to great success by Philippine production company Trumpets, which has already remounted it several times. The version opening at the Big Secret Theatre in Calgary being translated to English, artistic director Stephen Conde says this leaves the door open for more people to check it out. “Since we're a beginning company, we're starting up, we wanted to attract and accommodate a lot more people to come and see the show.”

For people with Filipino history, there is much to recognize, including slices of the original Tagalog text. The soundtrack of the show was composed by Broadway performer Lito Villareal, which Conde also says sounds like OPM, or Original Philippine Music.

While both this retelling and the Disney film are originally based on the Hans Christian Anderson story, Conde explains it's much grittier than the happy ending presented by Disney. “The grit is sort of something that more adult audiences will be able to see. For the kids, they will enjoy all the visuals, like the puppetry, the costumes, all of that,” he explained. However, despite the grit, Conde says it’s a show for the whole family.

Flipside Theatre Collective is a Filipino Canadian theatre group launched in 2024 that provides a professional theatre option for Filipino artists in Calgary. When I first met Conde in 2025, before he directed the Betty Mitchell Awards, he shared how drama, music, and performance are integral to Filipino culture, adding he was taken aback by the lack of Filipino representation onstage in Calgary. “We're a very artistic community, and I was wondering why I didn't see as much representation on professional stages for our community here,” Conde said. “I realized that a lot of these artists did not know that it was a viable option for them as a career.”

Calgary is home to the fourth-largest Filipino community in Canada, with the 2021 census estimating over 83,000 people of Filipino origin residing in the city. Now two years into its inception, Flipside Theatre Collective's Little Mermaid boasts 13 cast members, which Conde says, “For Calgary, it's pretty big.”

 Little Mermaid runs July 18–26 at the Big Secret Theatre at the Werklund Centre. It's roughly an hour and a half long.

Tickets available here: https://werklundcentre.ca/whats-on/little-mermaid