Arts | Hansel and Gretel adaptation brings new twist to classic tale

Choreographer and artistic director Christopher Hampson (left) and performers Andrew Peasgood (right) and Bethany Kingsley-Garner, who play Hansel and Gretel

A ballet adaptation of the Hansel and Gretel fairytale is set to show this weekend at the Macau Cultural Center, presenting the classic tale with a new twist. The production will be staged to the sound of the Macao Orchestra, who will complement the choreography.

Brothers Grimm’s well- known tale is reimagined by the award-winning Scottish Ballet and set in a mid-20th century town, where children are mysteriously disappearing since the arrival of a new teacher.

“The story of Hansel and Gretel has served countless generations over the years,” said choreographer and artistic director Christopher Hampson in a media interview yesterday. “In the original fairytale, it starts in a very dark place with the mother and father abandoning their children because they have not got enough to eat. That’s a rather cruel beginning.”

“In this version, the children in this town are disappearing and Hansel and Gretel are locked in their house and not allowed to go out, as their parents don’t want them to disappear. Instead they decide to go and find their school friends [who disappeared].”

“I really wanted the witch to be someone that the children could trust. And so even though they [the children] might be frightened of her, they would trust that they’re safe with their teacher,” explained Hampson. “And then every time we see [the witch] after that, she becomes less and less trustworthy.”

For Hampson, setting the piece in the mid-20th century adds a layer of simplicity and frugality to the tale, and avoids unnecessary complications concerning modern technology.

“I certainly didn’t want to tell a story that was just stuck two or three hundreds years ago, but also there is a simplicity to that era – between the 1940s and the late-1960s – in that the house that Hansel and Gretel live in, there is one fridge and one television… and that’s it,” he said yesterday. “There are no mobile phones and no internet […] and I like the simplicity of those times because it helps to tell the story.”

Based in Glasgow since 1969, Scottish Ballet performs across the United Kingdom and broad, making use of the strong classical techniques that form the roots of its work. Its ballet version of Hansel and Gretel marks a departure from the usual art form used to tell the story.

“There is a real freshness in coming to a story that’s never been told as a ballet before,” said Hampson. “That’s very liberating.”

But it also comes with many challenges, he said.

“One of the challenges with any ballet is to get the story across purely with movement. But what’s great with movement is that you can get the subtleties across [better],” said Hampson. “In terms of the movement, choreographing for all the different characters is probably what kept me energized. Beyond the witch, there are some quite magical characters, like the dew fairy, the sandman, and cakes and sweets that come to life.”

The company performed in Hong Kong on Sunday evening at the city’s International Arts Carnival.

Bethany Kingsley-Garner, who plays Gretel in the show, said that it had gone down very well with Hong Kong audiences.

“In Hong Kong, they were really laughing,” she said. “There are always points in the ballet where we know that there will be reaction – and there is every time.”

Hansel and Gretel is showing three times over the weekend at the Macau Cultural Center, with performances at 7.30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and a matinee performance at 3 p.m. on Sunday. DB