HANSEL AND GRETEL
Unless you own one, you might want to consider renting or borrowing a little person so you can infiltrate Hystopolis Puppet Theatre’s ingenious 40-minute version of Hansel and Gretel. As retold by writer/composer John Gegenhuber, this version remains remarkably true to the spirit of the original Brothers Grimm tale, especially to the sense of abandonment that lies at its heart; it even adds an earlier betrayal.
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Gegenhuber sets his retelling in the Appalachian Mountains, a change of locale that’s carried out with a sure sense of local color and slang. In this superstitious setting, strange old women have been known to lay curses on their enemies’ belongings, hexes that are often visited on the enemies’ children. That’s what seems to allow the witch her control over Hansel and Gretel. Actually, they’re foster parents because Hansel and Gretel are foundlings; it seems that seven years before, the couple discovered the brother and sister when a magic red bird led them to two lost babes in the woods.
Once the parents manage to stumble across their resourceful and triumphant children, the magical red bird reappears to fly around the mother. I’m not sure why. Was it trying to point the way to other lost children? Or does it come as part of the tale’s package deal–the bird arrives, early or late, whenever Hansel and Gretel get lost? Or is it meant to symbolize the end of the cycle of abandonment?
