IF you are inexperienced in the ways of children … when a little girl in the audience leaps into her parents’s arms seeking safety and comfort, after Nigel (Joey Hickman), one of Hansel and Gretel’s parents, driven crazy by lack of food, tries to eat some of the audience … you could well question whether this dark morality tale is the right choice for a Christmas show.

Those in the know were well aware that this was only a temporary set-back, and that, like many a youngster before her, the little girl not only soon adjusted to the story she was watching but cheered loudly and long when the Witch, who had trapped Hansel and Gretel in her gingerbread house, received her comeuppance, disappearing into the fiery furnace.

In between those two events the five members of New International Encounter had used their dramatic and musical talents to good effect, as they they swopped musical instruments as skillfully as they created new characters.

Working the audience well, Martin Bonger, as the second parent, Nicholas, made sure that we all knew that there was a strong thread of humour running through this updated version of a show that was previously seen at the Tobacco Factory 11 years ago. He was aided and abetted in this task by Samantha Sutherland, particularly when playing the cannibalistic – but fortunately very short-sighted – Witch.

The moral in the story was not lost with the Selfish Parents prepared to sacrifice their children by leaving them to starve in a wood so that they could survive the famine, and greedy Hansel (Abayomi Oniyide) and Gretel (Stefanie Mueller) stuffing themselves with food, with no thought for others who were starving, leading to them being trapped by the Witch.

This mixture of humour, drama. love. selfishness and greed was equally well-drawn in composer Elliot Davis’s music and lyrics, which throw in quite a few modern references to remind us that this is a new version of the Brothers Grimm’s very grim 1812 fairy story.

Director Alex Byrne says that the Tobacco Factory is his and the company’s favourite place to play, and the skillful way in which he uses the in-the-round setting, and the actors joyously make contact with the audience that surrounds them, underlines that fact.

If you are looking for an elaborate, spectacularly staged, panto-style Christmas show, look elsewhere. If you want one with a more thoughtful presentation, full of sincere love, pathos and gentle humour, songs to match, and with a little morality thrown in for good measure, beat a path to the Tobacco Factory Theatres between now and 19th January. There are plenty of 2pm matinees and 7pm evening performances to choose from for this distinctive Christmas show, which runs for two hours, including the interval.

PS Don’t worry about all the trials and tribulations Hansel and Gretel have to face – we do have a loving happy ending!

GRP

Photographs by Craig Fuller