“Where was the evil witch?” A child said, seated in the row in front.
“I was looking forward to seeing the witch get roasted,” said a parent, from behind.
It would have been an exciting opportunity to see how the Northern Ballet would interpret the haunting tale of the Brothers Grimms’ Hansel and Gretel for an audience of small children. However, it was disappointing to watch the fable diluted and modernised with little substance.
The original fable, an allegory for the suffering during the Great Famine of the Middle Ages, follows two children abandoned in the woods who are lured into the candy home of a cannibalistic witch. They ultimately outwit the witch, roast her to death and return home with stolen treasure to the open arms of the very parents who had earlier decided to leave them for dead (a happier ending to a Grimm’s fable than most!).
In contrast, the Northern Ballet’s version stripped away this premise entirely, retaining only the names of the children, and the forest setting. Instead, the narrative centred on children discovering a reverence for nature. The “witch,” in this version, is imagined as a monster made of used water bottles, playing no discernible role in the story other than being revealed as a person – an unnecessary twist that only further confused audiences. There was also no real conflict within the ballet other than the children being lost in the forest (which was not even definitely the case). The plotline felt so disjointed that it was difficult to follow as an adult, so one can only imagine the world of confusion the children must have experienced.
Despite an underwhelming plotline, the performers had great stage presence even though the sequences were rudimentary and only really included two ballet sequences – both performed by inconsequential characters who contributed nothing to the plot. The production leaned more towards a musical theatre style, with Gretel occasionally stepping en pointe, hardly qualifying this as a Ballet. The set design was creative in its use of recycled material regarding furthering the plot narrative of a reverence for nature, though having BnM logos in prop-design felt jarring and ironic in the setting of a forest.
As neither parent nor young child, I can appreciate that I am not the target audience of this Ballet; however, for an interpretation of a fable as well-known and beloved as Hansel and Gretel, one can imagine it should have been a natural decision to retain its plot.
Ballet as an art form and theatrical performance offers so much in welcoming children to the magic and glamour of theatre through its accessibility of communicating ideas through movement and dance. It is a beautiful craft that should be appreciated in its full form, and not be reduced to accommodate what we think children would want or like; Ballet must remain as a craft that can be enjoyed by all.
Image by Emily Nuttall courtesy of Capital Theatres