Marlene has had to move to the seaside with her Dad. She really misses the city and her friends and the life she left behind. But Marlene’s problems are only just beginning…..
Marlene loves eating tuna fish and much to Dad’s frustration will eat nothing else. When her precious doll is washed out to sea, she decides that she must rescue the doll, and so embarks on a magical sea adventure.
A fishy tale with fishy consequences! Tuna Girl explored the fears and feelings of a young child who has moved home and is displaced, and how change can at first seem just too difficult to manage, but in the end, with the help of others – including your Dad – things can work out OK.
The production toured nationally to venues and schools.
You can access the script of this play via the British Library’s MPS Modern Playscripts Collection. This play is also listed on the National Theatre’s Black Plays Archive.
Actor, Nicole Davis talks about being in the production, Tuna Girl and how the script dealt with some difficult issues, without patronising the young audience. Interviewed by Toni Tsaera.
Amit Sharma is an actor and director who worked at Half Moon Theatre at White Horse Road in the late 1990s. He talks about Tuna Girl, his first professional job, and its importance in giving him a life-long passion for work for children and young people, which laid the foundations of his professional career that followed. Interviewed by Toni Tsaera.
Music from Tuna Girl
Music from Tuna Girl
“Imaginative and innovative theatre… underscores a series of challenging, comical situations which young children can easily understand.”
Time Out
“An enchanting and beautifully simple play about using your imagination and accepting change”
The Stage Review