New Story, Old Feel

Illusion Theater's "Ballad of the Pale Fisherman" is a short story with an old-world feel that leaves the audience wanting more

Diogo Lopes plays a fisherman who catches and falls in love with Selkie, played by Anna Reichert in Ballad of the Pale Fisherman.

Image credit: Aaron Fenster/Illusion Theater

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By: Lauren Peck

With a stellar cast and a heartfelt story centered on a love of the sea, Ballad of the Pale Fisherman at the Illusion Theater is a wonderful new production with an old world feel, finding its roots in ancient Irish and Scottish folktales.

Part of the Illusion Theater's Lights Up! Series, which promotes new theater work, Ballad of the Pale Fisherman tells the story of a small fishing village and of one fisherman who discovers a seal-woman, or the mythical selkie, caught in his net. After the selkie's seal skin is lost to the sea, she is forced to come live on land, trapped as a human, and the fisherman quickly falls in love with her.

Written and directed by Isabel Nelson and performed by her theater company Transatlantic Love Affair, the production was a hit at the 2010 Minnesota Fringe Festival and has been expandedon for its run at the Illusion.

Anna Reichert shines in the role of the selkie, and her sadness and uncertainty is clear as she struggles to be a part of this new and unfamiliar world. Diogo Lopes in the role of the fisherman is also wonderful as a bashful, sad-eyed man, falling hopelessly in love with a wild creature. These two actors make every moment of the relationship feel real – filled with tentative, awkward, adorable moments and always colored by the problem of the selkie's intense longing to return to the sea.  

This production also shows that there is beauty in simplicity. There are virtually no props and no set. Instead, everything relies upon the ensemble members' performances, and as a group, they rise to the occasion. The ensemble acts out everything from seals on the beach to the ocean waves to the townspeople, including a hilarious trio of old women, and the bare stage comes alive as a remote fishing village.

Ballad doesn't forget about the tiny details in its staging, and it is those small quiet moments that make the show. Allison Witham's amazing sound effects, the ensemble acting out the ringing of the town bell and narrator Derek Lee Miller moving his accordion in time with the constant sound of crashing waves, which permeates most of the scenes, were each highlights of the performance.

If anything could improve Ballad, it may be to make this an even longer production. Even expanded from a Fringe production, it only runs a little over an hour, leaving parts of the story undiscovered and untold. What about the hints that there are other selkies living in town? Or the growing tension of so many of the town's young people moving to the mainland? There are so many threads of this tale that I'm eager to learn more about, and I would come see a two-hour long production of this show in a second.

Still, even as a short production, this is a breathless, heart-breaking fairy tale that will leave you thinking long after it's over.

+ Ballad of the Pale Fisherman continues at Illusion Theater through Sunday, Feb. 26. For more information visit illusiontheater.org.