This month, the Oxford Playhouse welcomes back award-winning resident company Shared Experience for its latest production, Mermaid.

The play is a bold re-imagining of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale of a Mermaid who falls in love with a mortal prince.

But she has to make a choice – does she remain below the ocean where there’s no pain, no death or separation.

Or, does she live above the water in a world beset with war, poverty and desire, and a place where she must destroy herself in order to be loved.

Theatre company Shared Experience is renowned for its imaginative adaptations of literary classics.

In this latest production writer and director Polly Teale transports Christian Anderson’s powerful coming-of-age story into a contemporary setting.

Shared Experience’s previous work includes Jane Eyre, Bronte and After Mrs Rochester, which won a Time Out award for Best West End Production and the Evening Standard Award for Best Director for Teale.

Mermaid, produced in conjunction with Nottingham Playhouse, uses choirs of local young women, aged 14 to 20, for the show. Oxford auditions were held earlier this year.

The show has been designed by Tom Piper, who recently designed Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, the ceramic poppies at the Tower of London.

It has already toured across the UK.

The Little Mermaid was written by Danish author Anderson in 1836. A statute of the Little Mermaid sits on a rock in the harbour in Copenhagen.

There will be a post-show question and answer session on Wednesday Mermaid opens on May 19 and runs until May 23.

Tickets cost from £11, for more information call 01865 305305 or see oxfordplayhouse.com