Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
December 10, 2016
Róisín O’Brien
Support and display, turn and twirl. Your standard ballet pas de deux can feel a bit been there, done that. By contrast, the title characters of Scottish Ballet’s Hansel & Gretel provide a dynamic and infectious pairing that holds together the ballet’s various divertissements and delights.
Having seen enough narrative ballets recently that have left me (quite honestly) bored and dismayed at poor, derivative storytelling, Christopher Hampson thankfully crafts a measured, well-paced tale. Recurrences and thematic similarities are developed through nicely repeated sequences; in particular, Gretel’s increasing frustration and ultimately despair when lost in the forest is subtly spun out by the choreography.
Bethany Kingsley-Garner is undoubtedly the star of the show. She portrays Gretel’s intelligence and maturity as compared to her flighty brother with conviction and clarity. Her technique is excellent, extended arabesques and grasping steps that tear across the stage peeping out from underneath her simple costume. Andrew Peasgood as Hansel gradually won me over with his enthusiasm, despite a few initial heavy landings.
The set and costume design by Gary Harris delivers easily on the extravagance and pick-and-mix colour palette we expect from these yearly Christmas spectaculars.
(dancers here: Andrew Peasgood as the Sandman, Kayla-Maree Tarantolo as Gretel and Constant Vigier as Hansel)
Photo Andy Ross
Bored and hungry, with their parents working flat out, Hansel and Gretel hatch a plan to escape, and traipse through the town before being lured into the forest (a change to the original). Their mother’s hardy work boots, their father’s drinking problem and the town’s weary and aimless inhabitants all gesture, however, to a dilapidated, industrial hub. The set design here grounds the production’s more fabulous elements and gives it overall a more distinct identity. By contrast, when we cut to a spooky forest, we’re in a spooky forest.
Engelbert Humperdinck’s 19th-century score at times feels a bit flat, washing over without always driving the plot. Similarly, some of the characters and phantasms produced by the witch feel merely visual rather than choreographically distinct, but not all. In particular, the rag dolls that bumble out of the witch’s closet joyfully wobble, flail and deconstruct across the stage, while Araminta Wraith’s transformation into a craggy witch feels far more freeing and happily indulgent than her conventional enchantress role.
Photo Andy Ross
There were a few wobbles on opening night, and one or two slip-ups, but overall Hansel & Gretel is a successful Christmas family event. I found myself asking upon leaving, however: is anyone ever really excited at some of these traditional ballets, or just pleased? If dance wants to reach a wider audience and a higher critical standing, don’t we want the audience itching to see a performance? Is ‘pleasant’ enough?
Hansel & Gretel continues at the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh to December 31, then tours to Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness, Newcastle and Belfast. Visit www.scottishballet.co.uk for details.