HANSEL & GRETEL – RECOMMENDED
Aberystwyth Arts Centre
Tue 9-Sat 13 Feb
words: Amelia Forsbrook
There are two versions of Hansel & Gretel. In the first, a girl goes into the woods for a walk with her brother. They happen to come across a truly scrumptious house. Some bad things happen, but it’s okay because Team Sibling manage to use their cunning initiative to escape and all is Happily Ever After.
The other version involves a foreboding forest, which functions to metaphorically highlight all the hidden dangers of the world. There is a sinister kidnapping, and some allusions to cannibalism. The children escape back to a familial house, different in its edibility but similar in how its walls hide the most damaging abuse. Oh – and it’s somehow become known as a kid’s story.
Leaving a trail of fans behind them that lead right up to the Aberystwyth Arts Centre like breadcrumbs, Kneehigh Theatre merge the playful and the dark in this macabre adaptation. Quirky black comedy drawing on Germanic theatrical ideas, so that the piece bears the same darkly appealing notions of history and folklore evident in Struwwelpeter. The incorporation of puppetry works to bring a self-conscious fictitiousness, yet there is a nightmarish edge that is bound to haunt any recollection of the tale.
Expect singing and dancing, and don’t be surprised if a cheeky poem springs out of the mix and watch out for swinging cages as Kneehigh exhibit their grotesque yet beautiful mastery over theatre.
Tickets: from £9. Info 01970 623232 / www.aber.ac.uk/artscentre
