Sugar-induced mayhem is unleashed on the Globe stage with Simon Armitage’s hyper adaptation of the Grimm brothers’ classic folktale. This jolly family show is full of giddy highs but despite the background of war, it misses the grisly bite of the original.
Armitage’s script has a lyrical swiftness to it, the rhyming verse crisp as it is passed between the actors, who delight in the sounds of synonyms as the family plod, pace and patter their way through the trees to where the siblings’ parents turn back alone. Jenni Maitland’s usher guides the story, an energetic force on the edge of the action, munching on a sandwich as quick-witted Hansel (Ned Costello) and Gretel (Yasemin Özdemir) drop their trail of crumbs. Echoing the scarcity in the village they’re forced to leave, Rae Smith’s design is beautifully makeshift, the woods and its secrets emerging with mud-slathered tents, the same material that makes up the fluttering birds and giant moths we meet along the way.
