Oregon Ballet Theatre Announces US Premiere of Hansel & Gretel

A fresh take on the famous fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel is a hit ballet from Australian choreographer Loughlan Prior.

“Revisiting this feast of a show again, after its premiere in 2019, provides so many wonderful roles for the artists of the company to sink their teeth into, and I’ve loved working with a new generation of dancers to bring this delicious production to life,” says Prior.

A production that delights in the childhood nostalgia of the classic Brothers Grimm story, while creating an outsized and mesmerizing three-dimensional world for the stage, makes Hansel & Gretel a surrealist wonder – filled with visual humor and playful storytelling.

“This is my 20th season with the company and this production is probably the most clever that I’ve seen. I’ve gotten to dance a lot of great roles, but I relish the opportunity to sink my teeth into a really juicy character role like this.” Brian Simcoe, OBT Principal Dancer

The following is an excerpt of “Creating a Fairy-Tale World” courtesy of the Royal New Zealand Ballet:

Food may be omnipresent, but the world in which the tale unfolds has many layers of inspiration. Chief among them is film – but not the digital wizardry of our own era. Rather, it is the flickering, grainy charm of early films such as Georges Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon (1902), with beautiful typography and magic achieved in monochrome, and projections and animations adding mystery and sometimes, menace.

The design also plays with scale, from the tangled forks which sprout to create the enchanted forest, to the two very different “buildings” which appear onstage. Hansel and Gretel’s tiny home, a single apple crate, vividly shows the stresses of a family in hard times, literally on top of each other. The gingerbread house which is constructed at the end of Act I seems small and almost innocent in its childlike construction but, Tardis-like, reveals the full scope of the Witch’s diabolical world in Act II.

Kate Hawley’s costumes are heavily influenced by the 1920s, with Act I showing clearly the “haves” and “have nots” of Hansel and Gretel’s home town in sharp tailoring, top hats and fox furs, versus the children’s much-patched and shabby garments. The 1920s were also one of the earliest periods when children were dressed as children, rather than miniature adults. The smart children who taunt Hansel and Gretel wear crested blazers, but Hansel and Gretel are simply and practically clad, though perhaps not warmly enough: rompers and a middy blouse for Gretel; shorts and a nod to lederhosen braces for Hansel.

The Witch enchants children like a Pied Piper showgirl, albeit one with a slight edge of Weimar-era cabaret tawdriness. The ice-creams she sells to mesmerized children are intensely colored, exotic and hallucinogenic in their power, while she herself is a riot of candy-colored fun.

Once on her home ground, the Witch’s colorful persona, together with the lavish banquet of food that she offers to the starving Hansel and Gretel, conspire to create sensory overload. There is too much color, too much food, too many people: everything is bright, sparkling and delicious. Hansel and Gretel are swept along and are powerless to resist. However, on closer inspection, perhaps the food is not as delicious as it seems?

The revelation of the Witch as her true self – sweet no more – is a return to the world of film and especially to classic early horror movies such as Nosferatu (1922). The grasping menace of her presence, first seen in shadow and then hideously revealed, returns the children all too brutally to the real world. It’s no longer a dream, but a nightmare.

– End: Excerpt of “Creating a Fairy-Tale World” courtesy of the Royal New Zealand Ballet. Edited for length.

Alongside composer Claire Cowan and designer Kate Hawley, Loughlin Prior originally created Hansel and Gretel for The Royal New Zealand Ballet in 2019. The original score can be found on Spotify. For fans of Tim Burton, Coraline and the Brothers Grimm, Hansel and Gretel is a whole lot of fun, just the right amount of spooky and great for all ages.

“It has been a thrill to work with Loughlan again. His imagination and humor have brought joy to the OBT studios as we’ve rehearsed this sweet and larger than life ballet. I can’t wait to see our audiences’ responses to this performance, as I regularly see our OBT staff from every department and students from our school mesmerized as they catch glimpses of the production in the works.” – Dani Rowe, Oregon Ballet Theatre Artistic Director.

Hansel and Gretel will run at the Keller Auditorium October 5-12. Tickets start at $32. Book Now.

Kirby Selchow and Shaun James Kelly of RNZB, photo by Stephen A’Court