Hansel And Gretal

Today Moonfish Productions thought about adding a twist to 'Hansel and Gretel'. We thought that instead of making The Parents horrible and The Children nice, we could make The Parents sweet, embarrassing and enthusiastic about going on a camping trip to the forest. We thought that Hansel and Gretel could be constantly embarrassed by and annoyed at their parents, until they go on a camping trip and find a spell book. They could then, cast spells on their mother and father. One of these spells, would turn them into a Witch and a Warlock. The Witch and Warlock would teach their children a lesson by summoning a gingerbread house and luring their greedy children into it, where they would play frightful tricks on them. In trying to escape, Hansel and Gretal would accidentally turn their parents into dolls (the audience would hear the mum and dad talking from backstage, giving the illusion that they have become dolls).

We had to perform what we had to our peers. I felt that, once again, I was flat at times. I was also very clumsy today and kept bumping into things. I need to make sure that I get a good night sleep before performing, as it effects my performance negatively. We were given feedback that the beginning didn't capture the audiences attention and that the story was too far away from the original story of Hansel and Gretal. We also had too many fairytale references, which could give false hopes of appearances from them. It was suggested that the kids could be really bratty and that their parents could be at the end of their tether. To teach the kids a lesson, the parents would play tricks on them and cast spells on them while on a camping trip.

While observing other groups, I realised that they all had something original and exciting about their play that made them stand out e.g. physical theatre, well-known fairytale characters mixed into one story, live music etc. Our group have nothing to help us to stand out.


Also we saw a show at The Hat Factory. It was called Our Big Land:
http://www.lutonculture.com/hat-factory/whats-on/2014/03/13/our-big-land/881/?from=%252Fhat-factory%252Fwhats-on%252F%2523search
It was interesting to observe the culture of Romany Travellers. I knew hardly anything about their culture before I saw the show and it opened my eyes to the use of contrasting different cultures when devising performances. I enjoyed their use of physical theatre, live singing and music to move the story along. I will suggest the idea of this to 'Moonfish Productions' for the opening of our piece, as well as other scenes.