Chinese actresses perform in The Little Mermaid

Chinese actresses in a scene from "The Little Mermaid" that was performed for journalists ahead of the show's debut on July 6 at the China National Theater for Children in Beijing. [Photo: China Plus]

After seven weeks of rehearsal, a China-Denmark co-production of the stage show "The Little Mermaid" will be unveiled in Beijing this weekend.

The performance begins with a man making a paper-cut behind a curtain, a scene that aroused a lot of interest from journalists who saw a recent rehearsal.

It's not common knowledge that Hans Christian Anderson was also a skillful paper-cut artist, explained Torkild Lindebjerg, the show's Danish director. "We have Hans Christian Anderson, then we have the paper-cut, then we have some children, because Anderson was travelling very often to visit people. And it's expected from him that he should sit and tell fairy tales to the children."

A man making a paper-cut behind a curtain opens the stage show "The Little Mermaid", a China-Denmark co-production. A small segment of the show was performed for journalists ahead of its debut on July 6 at the China National Theater for Children in Beijing. [Photo: China Plus]

The director said they retained as much of the detail as they could from the original story, which is one Hans Christian Andersen's most beautiful and popular fairy tales. The hope is that the story can lead Chinese audiences to re-consider the meaning of love, which is full of compromises and sacrifices.

The Danish director has 45 years of experiences in the theater, but it's the first time he's worked with a Chinese cast.

"We have to learn how to produce theater here in China," said Lindebjerg. "That's always difficult because you have to find the way of working together. But I think we have made the best possible outcome."

The Danish theater company has vowed to co-produce "The Mermaid in East China Sea," a Chinese version of the mermaid story, for young audiences in Denmark, so they can better understand Chinese theater arts.