Lorna Irvine reviews Scottish Ballet's version of the classic tale.
Christopher Hampson's wonderful Scottish Ballet company have achieved the nigh-on impossible here: transforming beautiful soloist Luciana Ravizzi from graceful to grotesque with eerie accuracy. She is the star-turn as the ballerina/witch luring Hansel and Gretel in to her gingerbread house- one minute en pointe as a white fairy, the next, scratching her flea-ridden head and shuffling around in mangy old slippers. She is wonderful, with incredible acting skills equal to her dancing.
This magical yet melancholic poem to childhood undone sees the fairytale elements become something darker and denser indeed- more akin to the original spirit of the Brothers Grimm than Disney: there may be fluttering dew drop fairies in the ensemble, floppy rag dolls and a delicious looking moveable set by Gary Harris (complete with edible props and food fights-- all massive candy spirals and lollipops), but the corrupting adult influences of Ravizzi's witch, a seductive, twinkling Sandman (Chris Harrison) and Erik Cavallari as Hansel and Gretel's alcoholic father are never far away.
It is the stuff of screaming tabloid headlines: missing children in forests, binge drinking and abject poverty, yet it is offset by the playfulness, never too cloying, by leads Andrew Peasgood as Hansel and Bethany Kingsley-Garner as Gretel. Hansel may be a little too attached to his teddy bear, but he is self-contained and wise, and it is Gretel who is headstrong and resourceful, saving them from being turned into human croissants.
At times, there are even shades of Angela Carter's feminist re-imaginings of the fairytale format: Hansel's beloved teddy bear meets an untimely end, food is scarce and 'ladies of the night' and biker gangs lurk in the corners. One particularly poignant scene has a tender pas de deux between Eve Mutso (the children's mother) and Cavallari, swapping lager, fags and beige 50s garb for champagne and finery- and a happy marriage.
With increasing numbers of families in Britain today relying on food banks, the depiction of the children's hunger in the first half takes on added potency, especially at this time of year- ballet for the age of austerity. But here on stage at least, there is a happy ending.
Touring 2013/2013. Check www.scottishballet.co.uk for details.
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