REVIEW: HANSEL AND GRETEL Camden Fringe at Upstairs at the Gatehouse 22 – 25 August 2024

‘Gingerbread, booze and pill popping: a very modern fairy tale’ ★★★★★

Hansel and Gretel are sent into the forest to collect berries by their impoverished mother, as there is nothing in the house to eat. They get lost in a magical forest of fairies and angels, but evil is not far away. The children are enticed into a gingerbread house filled with cakes and sweets by an evil witch who plans to fatten up Hansel to eat him and throw Gretel into the oven. As with all fairy tales, all ends well, the children are reunited with their parents and no doubt they lived happily ever after.

It baffles me why Engelbert Humperdinck’s enchanting opera is not performed more often. Based on the well-known Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale, it is a musical gem, and Opera Kipling more than did it justice. Their version was set in the 1950s, with a family struggling with poverty: an alcoholic father, a pill popping mother and irrepressible children full of playfulness and love.

Rebecca Milford’s bright, almost piercing soprano was perfect for the role of Gretel and blended well with Wiktoria Wizner’s Hansel, whose warm toned mezzo voice brought balance and depth to their duets. The pair had great chemistry as the mischievous, playful siblings. Their Act 1 duet when Gretel teaches Hansel how to dance, was a sheer delight. Grace Lovelace played their mother, but really blossomed in her second role as the witch, a pantomime villain of a character which she sang beautifully. Isolde Roxby’s Sandman aria was a highlight of the show, and Alex Pratley’s Father was both funny and excellently sung.

The set was simple but inspired, with coat stands topped with green patterned umbrellas as the forest, which transformed into the witch’s cottage with multicoloured helium balloons. There are many operas that work well as small scale productions accompanied by piano. Sadly, Hansel and Gretel is not one of them. I found myself really missing the lush orchestration, though this was no fault of musical director and pianist Giannis Giannopoulos. This was a marvellous production, and I look forward to seeing more from Opera Kipling in future.

Hansel and Gretel by Englebert Humperdinck

Upstairs at the Gatehouse, 22-25 August 2024

Tickets: https://upstairsatthegatehouse.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173655219

Musical director: Giannis Giannopoulos

Director: Guido Martin-Brandis

Company: Opera Kipling

Singers: Rebecca Milford, Wiktoria Wizner, Isolde Roxby, Grace Lovelace, Alex Pratley

Reviewer: Srabani Sen

Srabani is a theatre actress and playwright. As an actress she has performed at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse (The Globe), the Arcola, Southwark Playhouse, The Pleasance and numerous fringe theatres, in a range of roles from Shakespeare to plays by new and emerging writers. She has written several short and full length plays. Her play Tawaif was longlisted for the ETPEP Finborough award, and her play Vijaya was shortlisted for the Sultan Padamsee Playwrights Award in Mumbai.