Hansel and Gretel is artistic director Christopher Hampson’s eagerly anticipated first production for Scottish Ballet. Taking the score of Engelbert Humperdinck’s fairytale opera as a starting point, Hampson and his experienced company have put together an enchanting ballet that has a broad appeal. This was reflected in the audience where, along with the usual range of adults, children were also present in encouragingly healthy numbers.
In this reworking of the classic fairytale, Hansel and Gretel are from a happy family. Food is scarce and they are hungry, but they are also safe and loved. In this version, danger lurks in the schoolroom, where the new teacher lures children to their deaths with garish lollipops. As children disappear at an alarming rate, Hansel and Gretel are shut indoors by their anxious parents, for their own safety.
One night they sneak out, seeking their friends and adventure, are lead deep into the forest to the gingerbread house, and from there the story returns to its traditional path: Hansel is locked up - and fattened up - by the witch, who they are thankfully able to push into the oven before she makes a meal out of Hansel, and afterwards live happily ever after.
This was a stylish piece with perfect pitch, balancing the dark and macabre, the humorous and the playful with poise and precision. Gary Harris’s design was inspired in this regard, mixing modern and classical elements that were both reassuringly familiar and refreshingly original.
Mum in an apron, headscarf and slippers, dad in donkey-jacket and cap, squabbled over cans of beer and fags and fell asleep in front of the telly, while Teddy Boys roamed the streets outside. Hansel in baggy shorts and Gretel in pigtails and a duffle coat, could have walked straight out of the Famous Five. In the forest, however, there was Disneyland sparkle, traditional tutus, sophisticated grace and opulent beauty.
But nothing was quite as it seemed. In the forest where the trees dripped with luminous lollipops, excitement turned quickly to fear; in the gingerbread house the magnificent feast spread out on the table, drew attention away from the bars on the windows and the ominous neon glow from the enormous oven.
The cast performed Hampson’s inspired choreography to the award-winning standard that has now come to be expected of Scottish Ballet. Constant Vigier as Hansel and Sophie Martin as Gretel, helped by some cleverly oversized furniture, avoided appearing coy and sentimental and instead brought an innocence and vulnerability to the drama that did not threaten the necessary suspension of disbelief. Eve Mutso, as ever, was supreme in the part of the witch, creating an absorbing, fully-rounded, character in a way that only the very best dancers can achieve. It therefore came as no surprise when she received by far the loudest cheer – although the cast, including Mutso herself, did seem a little taken aback.
Scottish Ballet’s Education Team had consulted with children and adults in a creative, Scotland-wide project entitled Hansel & Gretel and Me. The aim of involving communities in the research for this new ballet had been to make the ballet and its audience better connected, ensuring the themes depicted were those that would resonate – across the generations. It worked.
Runs 8th – 11th Jan, 2014