Hansel and Gretel, Shakespeare’s Globe Review (2024)
Yasemin Özdemir as Gretel and Ned Costello as Hansel in Hansel and Gretel at Shakespeare's Globe. Photo by Ellie Kurttz
Written by Cathie for Theatre and Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
This festive season the Globe has ditched Anderson’s little fir tree and have gone decidedly more Grimm in a retelling of Hansel and Gretel adapted for stage by Poet Laurate Simon Armitage. In this adaptation, we see the overriding reasoning behind the abandonment of the children is that instead of famine their parents want to save their children from their war torn village instead. This is an outdoor based venue and the show will continue, sun or rain and on my viewing of the show it poured down quite heavily throughout the entire performance. However, from the actors top notch performance and commitment to the show, unless you were shivering in the seats you would never have realised the inclement weather (I strongly suggest to bring thermals and the thickest jumper possible to truly enjoy this show).
The story is introduced by a Globe popcorn seller who is the omniscient and all powerful narrator (Jenni Maitland) who’s spritely and cheeky nature provides much of the pizzaz and power of the story as she retells the tale of poor Hansel (Ned Costello) and Gretel (Yasmin Özdemir). Both actors portray their characters with a large amount of charm, wit and cheekiness that the audience responded and warmed well to. The parents (Harry Heple and Beverly Rudd) in their dual roles as both caring figures and sinister masterminds were brilliant and perfectly dastardly in bringing their roles to life. Rudd was especially fantastic high energy as the witch, although in this adaptation she is not a cannibal crone but a human trafficker who wants the children to be crafted to the perfect size to fetch the best price in war. She meets her end in a grizzly way and I’m sure many of the younger audience would agree it’s the right sentence for wanting children to bathe. Heple was fantastic as both a sinister swan and as the exhausted father returning from war.
The set is sparsely but inventively decorated with a fabulous Home Sweets Home sign that made many of us giggle in the audience and the props were hilarious. The middle of the show did include dancing sweets puppets and beautiful sweeping birds which definitely wowed the younger members of the audience. The witches house reveal was exemplary in showcasing the change from sickly exterior to sinister interior (the decorations might scare younger children).There are also some wonderful songs (by Magnus Mehta and Patrick Pearson) that were sung throughout, including a hilarious ode to sugar, and you will find yourself humming them on your way home. We are also serenaded throughout in true globe fashion by an excellent set of musicians who truly add joy and strength to the show (Magnus Mehta, Tamar Osborn, Hanns Mbuya and Yelfris Valdes).
The biggest setback in this show is the plot that feels rather spooky and flat throughout most of this show. The uneven twisting between light and dark themes felt confusing to many and took away some of the emphasis the actors were trying so hard to achieve. Although his prose is fabulous rhyming that trips beautifully off the tongue, Armitage’s attempt at merging this classic tale with modern political morals and tribulations feels rather flat and disjointed throughout most of the plot. The keeping of outdated gender stereotypes and harmful attitudes towards the children’s appearance and weight felt jarring, outdated and uncomfortable, especially considering this is geared towards primary aged children.
With a running time of an hour with no interval, this show is fairly short and sweet and would work well for theatre goers of seven and above. I would not recommend this production for younger than six as many of the younger children in the audience found it difficult to contain their wriggles after halfway through the performance. Tonally I would also not recommend for ks1 or lower aged children as it is too dark and uneven in tone and would provide too many nightmares for the children and two little joy to compensate. Older tweens and children on the cusp of moody teenagedom would definitely enjoy this production with their parents far more.
If you enjoy spooky Christmas stories, adaptations of Grimm tales and watching empowered children triumph over human trafficking and war torn countries then this is the play for you.
Running until 5th January 2025
★★★
