HANSEL AND GRETEL

HANSEL AND GRETEL
at Brentwood Theatre

14.12.13

Mike Kenny's clever re-working of the old tale is a family show in every sense.

Its ingenious form takes a nuclear family of four, and has them tell the story, slipping in and out of the familiar characters. Quite intelligent enough to entertain the most sophisticated of grown-ups. Quite magical enough, and comical enough, to delight the kids.

Director Joseph C Walsh uses the family's kitchen as a chameleon setting for forest and gingerbread house, and the four versatile young actors are convincing both as the modern family and the woodcutter, his wife, and his two hapless children. So Charlotte Bradford plays both mothers, as well as the Wicked Witch; Paul Tonkin is the fathers and the enormous dormouse who overcomes his fear to help defeat the evil child-snatcher. Stephen O'Riain is Hansel, easily distracted by food, and Hannah Douglas is a feisty Gretel – it is her initiative that finishes the tale, giving it that all-important jazz hands happy ending.

The catchy little numbers [Andrew Dodge] – Time for A Treat either side of the ice-cream interval, What I Really Enjoy is a Boy a splendid anthem for the Witch – have witty lyrics, and both punctuate and illustrate the narrative, making for a uniquely enjoyable blend of story-telling and musical theatre.

production photography by Carmel Jane

HANSEL AND GRETEL

HANSEL AND GRETEL

Open Door Opera at the King's Head Theatre Islington

19.12.2011

for The Public Reviews

This much-loved fairytale opera had very domestic origins. In recent years various regietheater interpretations have lost sight of these roots, so it is good to see the folky, child-centred focus restored in this lovely pocket version.

Valentino Monticello's Act One backcloth makes the point. Here, in picture book colours, are books on shelves, with Pinocchio and the Angels as book-ends, a roaring fire and above it a painting of the gingerbread house in the woods.

This is an intimate opera house, so we're close enough to count the stitches in Gretel's knitting. The major strength of this production is the casting and direction of the title roles. Laura Kelly's Hansel is a sulky boy, a reluctant dancer at first; Danae Eleni's domestic Gretel chides and cajoles him. The dance sequence, so often twee and tedious, is full of fun and character here. They both sing their roles beautifully, their two voices, carefully tempered to the tiny venue, blend well. And they act every second of the score – gobbling strawberries, scoffing marshmallows, licking up the cream, sharing a broomstick to fly off home at the end.

I enjoyed Ian Massa-Harris's Little Britain witch, too, creepily menacing in his cardie and specs, greedily eyeing the oven-ready lost children.

While Janet A N Fischer made a believable mother, scolding one moment, desperately praying the next, Ian Wilson-Pope seemed uncomfortable, dramatically and vocally, in the role of the drunken broom-seller.

The immortals made the most of their brief moments – Rosalind Coad's Sandman, with her gold dust and nightcap, and especially Alexandra Stevenson's hungover party-girl Dew Fairy, clutching her golden shoes – a lovely conceit.

Not every aspect of Lewis Reynolds' production was as inspired as this – like his lively new libretto, it was patchy. The food parcels were particularly unconvincing, and it would have been nice to have a scarier oven for the gingerbread – a red glow, a little smoke, a panto flash ...

And of course we miss the orchestration [and the chorus] too, though Kelvin Lim was superb at the King's Head piano.

There were a few children in the audience on Press Night – I'd like to think more Islington families would take advantage of this very accessible, over-by-bedtime show. There was plenty of magic, and not a few thrills, both musical and dramatic, to keep the youngsters amused and the grown-ups entertained.

this piece first appeared on The Public Reviews