This is NEPTUNE, a collaged fairy tale about how we adapt to a changing world.

While the Whale (portrayed by a singer/songwriter at a piano) tells her story entirely through song, the Boy's tale unfolds through simple storytelling and bold physical theater. A playful, dark adaptation of H. C. Andersen's The Little Mermaid, NEPTUNE explores the nature of sacrifice, the meaning of self, and the question of water.

online program

photos from the premiere of NEPTUNE

songs for the journey

co-written by Jeremy Pickard and Brielle Korn

directed by Sarah Hughes

created and performed by Preston Copley, Brielle Korn, Jeremy Pickard, and Ying Yu Tan

stage managed by Katie Farley

lighting design by Barbara Samuels

sound design by Eva von Schweinitz

additional music direction by Steven Gates

dramaturgy by Teale Sperling

fight choreography by Alicia Rodis

produced by Rachel Karpf in association with Odyssey Productions

NEPTUNE premiered at the Flux Factory November 14-22, 2009.

GIRL

"We don't have much time," his giant eyes seem to declare.
"What's your decision? You have to make a decision!"
The Girl kisses the Boy on his fish lips.
She shakes her head "No",
turns around, and dissolves into the ivory night, leaving the Boy behind.

BOY
And then
He begins to glow.
The chemicals inside his now-nearly-completely-Piscean body swirl and mix together, the last dregs of physical humanity melting into cold blood, and, through the white darkness, radiating, he becomes a ball of brilliant bioluminescence. Green, scaly, and glowing.

N
The Boy slips into the harbor at the prescribed moment of precision, and is a fish. He finds N waiting for him, smiling, emblematic scissors in tow, ready to cut the ribbon on the race of men.