'Hansel and Gretel' review — Poet Laureate Simon Armitage's take on the Brothers Grimm is a short and sweet Christmas treat

Read our review of festive family show Hansel and Gretel, now in performances at Shakespeare's Globe to 5 January 2025

Last year Poet Laureate Simon Armitage’s version of Hansel and Gretel was stopped in its tracks by cast illness. But, back for a second time, healthy and hearty, it is the sugar rush-induced pandemonium it was always meant to be.

The Grimm brothers’ classic story has been accelerated into a skittish dreamlike state. Jenni Maitland’s usher begins the show. Coming from within the crowd and holding a tray, full to the brim with snacks, she leads us through the story while gobbling down a sandwich. She’s a nice touch, but with this Hansel and Gretel supposedly suitable for 5+ years, her speech, which flows out in a series of rhyming couplets, is sometimes difficult to follow.

Armitage has moved the action into a present day. The children are still left alone by their parents in the forest to fend for themselves, but there are traces of the current refugee crisis, although an exact time or location is not specified. While the witch still lives in a sweet-adorned cottage, she is played as a croaky Manc, by Beverly Rudd, and is actually a child trafficker who wants to sell Hansel and Gretel off into slavery.

It sounds like a pretty gloomy affair all round, but Nick Bagnall’s production bursts with colour and energy. With costumes designed by Rae Smith and William Fricker, we are served hats that resemble boiled sweets, Percy pigs and fizzy red lips. There are songs, composed by Magnus Mehta and Patrick Pearson, which are wonderfully weird and feel like a fever dream.

The stage itself is stitched together like a makeshift jigsaw puzzle. Mud-covered tents which decorate the stage edges are used as bird and moth costumes. A highlight of the play comes when a massive blow-up swan rides from outside the theatre and through the standing audience pit.

At the centre are Hansel and Gretel, of course. Played by Yasemin Özdemir and Ned Costello, together they skip into the woods and plot their eventual escape. Both actors play their parts with childlike wonder, giggling and bickering with one another as they go.

They are completely believable as youngsters. Aided by their costumes – Gretel dons an all-pink outfit, completed by a sparkly My Little Pony top and Hansel has a big, oversized blue puffer coat – they look suitably lonely and afraid. But despite the narrative of Hansel and Gretel being quite horrific, we never feel the frights of the sorry with enough weight.

No matter though because the audience (well, the ones above the age of 5) seem to enjoy it. Even though you have to be pretty brave to cope with the Globe’s freezing outside temperatures, at a swift 60 minutes the play flies by. This is a short and sweet Christmas treat, for nearly all the family.

Hansel and Gretel is at Shakespeare's Globe to 5 January 2025. Book Hansel and Gretel tickets on London Theatre.

Photo credit: Hansel and Gretel (Photos by Ellie Kurttz)