Program Note from the Director
The story of Hansel and Gretel is immediately recognised as the fairytale in which a brother and sister are sent out into a forest where after getting lost, they discover an enticing gingerbread house inhabited by a nasty child-eating witch. All becomes resolved as the quick-witted children win out, good overcoming evil. The shades of darkness and light that permeate the Grimm Bothers’ telling of the story are quite brilliantly imagined in Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera score, with a libretto by his sister, Adelheid Wette.
For this project, to maximise educational and expressive opportunity, we have taken two interpretative routes to telling the story. While the contrasting productions use the same set with minor changes in costumes, the alternate intentions generate quite different interactions with the libretto and music.
The first production has been shaped for schools and families, in an abridged version in English. While the scary elements permit reflection on how easy it is to be enticed into difficult circumstances and that light and dark co-exist and need to be teased apart, the goodness and wit of the children shine through, with humour thrown in for good measure.
The second interpretation, using Wette’s original libretto, takes us deeper into the history of famine, abject poverty, and the practices of abandoning and/or murdering children that were carried out in a struggle for survival. Communities were also bound by strong beliefs in forces beyond themselves. In this version of the story, the children find themselves in a community that has turned a blind eye to despicable acts. While light does overcome darkness, adult morality and responsibility are scrutinised.
This project has been a wonderfully collaborative experience, with up to six casts supporting and covering for one another as a range of coughs, cold and COVID have affected our rehearsal period. The interdependencies are immediately evident in the work of chorus and physical actors who interact with both the set and principal actors to reflect changes in Hansel and Gretel’s circumstances.