Hansel and Gretel

In the school holidays we try to keep Dan busy and stimulated by taking him out. He loves the movies, but live shows in the theatre are much better.

We saw "Annie"the musical at the Cambridge Corn Exchange before Christmas and this was a memorable, professional event in a grand venue with TV stars among the cast; but the whole show was stolen by the chorus of kids from the local Stagecraft school. They were superb.

Dan also attended an amateur performance of "Oliver Twist" in St Neots, which he enjoyed, but the clear winner, to me at least, was a version of "Hansel and Gretel" staged at The Junction in Cambridge over the New Year.

The theatre is small and forms an extension to the well known, cavernous, grungy, beer-soaked, rock-music venue next door. The lobby is so small that you have to queue in the cold outside, but we arrived half an hour before the start and so managed to wait inside amidst a typical Cambridge crowd, comprised of small children and their parents. Almost every couple, including us of course, was made up of at least two nationalities! (Think about it.) We heard Spanish, Dutch and some other Eastern European languages, possibly Polish, but the only one who grated on our sensibilities was a red-faced English guy who shouted at his children and threatened to leave them in the forest to die. Or was that later on?

The crew cut it pretty fine, only letting us in a few moments before curtain-up. But there was no curtain.

An imposing lady came out of the studio and told us that they were ready to start; at least, that's what we think she said. We couldn't quite make out what language she was speaking, but she was addressing us and waving us all inside.

A middle European gypsy band (guitar, double bass, clarinet, accordion and percussion) was playing dances to entertain us. When we were all seated the introductions began, but in what language? Each musician had a go in their language, but had only limited response from the audience. Then the accordion player tried English and we all breathed a sigh of relief. Up to this point I was quite willing to accept that we had mistakenly booked a Polish matinee of the show! All the same, I was sure we were going to enjoy it.

And so we did. Now, I don't want to give away the whole plot to you in case you catch the show on tour; but it was spell-binding. I'm sure you know the story anyway. You are somewhere out there in the great forests of Poland or somewhere similar and the winter its very hard. People are starving. They cannot feed their whole family. So children have to be abandoned in the forest. Is this so wrong? What would you do? If I had a beautiful Norwegian second wife (with a kind face and a very bad temper) I would do what she said and abandon my children, and so would you, so don't be judgemental. (It's possible that several dads in the audience have abandoned their kids for their beautiful second wife.)

That's what happens, but the children are resourceful and they survive and make it home. But the next winter is even worse and they find themselves abandoned again.

"What are you doing now?" "I'm playing winter on the glockenspiel for you." "Thank you for your support."

So the play works on all levels; a good story for kids, a real dilemma for modern parents and many asides for the theatre-going public.

The wicked Norwegian step-mum is pretty and the witch who owns the gingerbread house is a cuddly Yorkshire granny, but she eats children! Is this so wrong? She's a nice person.

Gretel has to push the nice, child-eating witch in the stove to finish her off. Then she finds the witch's treasure and so they have a happy ending. But now Gretel is a murderer and a thief! Is that so bad? Do not the ends justify the means?

Its a really great story delivered with a modern twist. See it if you can. The reviews are tremendous, even in the national press.