'Gnaw' Is A Hansel & Gretel With A Dark Twist

Gnaw, a gruesome reimagining of Hansel and Gretel, focuses on one family’s struggle to survive as a famine ravages the country and a witch haunts the nearby woods.

Yes - we agree: Hansel and Gretel is already pretty dark, but in Sean Meldrum's Gnaw, it gets even darker. By all accounts, this play certainly fits into the horror genre, or at least psychological horror. The stepmother/witch character can only be described as terrifying.

Brave secondary school, A.N. Meyer, (Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada), staged a production of Gnaw last weekend and blew audiences, and peers, away. And, boy do we wish we could have seen it for ourselves! Youth theater has the potential to be brutally honest and emotional and it sounds like all involved achieved precisely that. Congratulations A.N. Meyer!

Unfortunately, there aren't many images of the A.N. Meyer's production so, apart from the two above, this poster we pulled from the school website and the announcement below from the Arts section of the school newsletter, we've included images from Sean Meldrum's first showing (posters etc) and four at the end of the post from the original production, to give you an idea of what it's like.

Here are excerpts from some of the Cappies peer reviews (ie. secondary school reviewers, training in theater arts criticism and journalism, all of whom did excellent work! Credits and the school the reviewer attends are listed at the end of the extract):

We all know the classic story of Hansel and Gretel — or do we? In this sinister retelling, A.N. Myer presents a version in which happily ever after is never found.In a village struck by famine, Hansel and Gretel live with their harsh parents in a house devastated by poverty. Their father, Bullpig, is the leader of a mysterious pack that ravages refugees to find sustenance. When he goes on a trip from which he might not return, desperation hangs heavy above the family, their main source of meals gone. Left with their dauntingly severe mother, the lengths they take to find food are rivetingly depicted. As tensions mount, the fine line between reality and fiction comes into question.  

Overall, A.N. Myer’s recent production of Gnaw was a thrilling performance that showcased the witches living within us all. (Grace Dobbie - Greater Fort Erie Secondary School)

A.N. Myer’s thrillingly morbid production of Gnaw is not for the weak of heart, nor the weak of stomach. This “fractured fairytale” turned beliefs of right and wrong entirely upside-down in a series of horrifying twists. Raw, powerful acting coupled with unique elements such as live sound effects and shadow puppetry made for an utterly chilling experience.
Gnaw was written by Queen’s student Sean Meldrum for the Toronto Fringe Festival, where it was described as “raw and unapologetic” (Queen’s Review Journal). It tells a dark, reimagined version of Hansel and Gretel. Their family is desperately attempting to stay alive in the midst of a devastating famine, and rumours begin to swirl of a witch that haunts the nearby forest. The audience follows the family’s story, and learns the gruesome lengths to which each family member will go to survive. (Michaela Bax-Leaney - Eden High School)

Sounds chilling, doesn't it?

And we can only find two quotes from the screenplay, but combined, they give the chills all by themselves:

 "Violence, my children, is a snake that is eating itself."

and then, simply:

"You must be hungry."

               
We're guessing no audience member - or participant - will forget Meldrum's Hansel & Gretel any time soon!

#RemindsUsOfTheDonnerParty

Article Series: Why Do Theaters Tend To Dumb Down Fairy Tales?

Julie Taymor's The Magic Flute

Why DO theaters tend to go 'kiddie' in adapting fairy tales? Why the insistence on political correctness and happy endings for every one? Even the bad guys?

Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty

Fairy tale friend Cindy Marie Jenkins, who writes for The Clyde Fitch Report ("the nexus of Art and Politics"), is currently doing an in depth article series, posted monthly, over the period of a year, investigating and discussing how we can make better, smarter theater for young audiences, or, as a theatrical colleague said: "We want to do children's theater that doesn't suck!"

Theater Rudolstadt's Pinocchio

In her introductory article, Cindy mentions:

Since the only “kids” show I remember seeing as a child was A.R.T.’s production of The King Stag, with puppets by Julie Taymor, it’s hard for me to stomach anything that dumbs down story for children. They are much more intelligent than most TYA (Theater for Young Audiences) gives them credit for being.

BalletLORENT's Rapunzel

We agree. Kids theater in general tends toward 'safe', but fairy tale theater tends to take that to the extreme, crossing the line from 'safe' into downright saccharine. But why? It certainly doesn't need to. Why is this the trend? What is it about children's theater, and even more so, fairy tales, that causes productions to develop in this direction?

Imago Theater's La Belle: Lost in the World of the Automaton (Beauty & the Beast)

Our Fairy Tale News Hound originally came from a working theater background of many years and has quite a few thoughts on the subject. Fortuitously, she was asked to be interviewed to discuss the issues with adapting fairy tales in particular, and with the introduction up and the investigation well underway, we thought it was high time to share so you can follow along if you're interested too.

You can find the introduction, 

Why Do Theaters Dumb Down TYA?

HERE.

The second installment, which our Fairy Tale News Hound had the opportunity to chime in on, along with Debbie Devine, the director of 24th Street's recommended production Hansel and Gretel: Bluegrass, is titled:

Why TYA Should Join the Dark Side (of Fairy Tales)

which you can find HERE.

To bookmark the series you can click on the screenshot image above, or go HERE, searching with the tag Talking TYA.

Note: All images shown here are from recommended productions, that is, "not sucky" fairy tale theater, to which you can take confidently take young folk to enjoy and experience quality shows and performances.

24th Street Theater's Hansel and Gretel: Bluegrass

Untapped Treasures: Art Installation "Forest Fruit" (Please DO Touch the Display)

Note: This article is from our giant store of almost-complete-but-unpublished posts. We've been cleaning up our bedraggled drafts, archived images and incomplete stories that were never quite posted due to the constant deluge of fairy tale news (it's a good problem to have) and are finding a treasure trove of un-shared things! We can't bear to hit the delete button on these awesome nuggets and are choosing, instead, to share, so are beginning a new semi-regular column titled Untapped Treasures. The stories posted under this title are all new, not re-posted or from our archives, so it's still news to many people. It's just not as current as our usual content, though we will endeavor to post any updates to the story at the bottom of the article, should there be any current news on the subject.  Enjoy!

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Described as "following a Hansel and Gretel style trail" this textile installation, which showed at the Norfolk and Norwich Art Festival in 2015, and exhibited in February this year as well, encouraged children to play and feel, find the stories hidden in the installation and to also create their own.

From the Norwich Evening News:

The installation - called Forest Fruit - is by Belgian artist Naomi Kerkhove.
It is described as an installation where “a child’s imagination is king,” and people are invited to follow the threads of Ms Kerkhove’s intricately woven textile landscape and untangle their own unique patchwork of stories.

From WP Zimmer:

In her performances Naomi Kerkhove invites the audience on a poetical trip through a black and white miniature universe stitched together with a sewing-machine. In her youngest interactive installation, the audience can enter this world of wonders by themselves. With Forest Fruit Kerkhove assembles elements out of old and recent work, touring the audience around a world that reminds us of a workshop and a playroom, towards a place where your own imagination becomes tangible. You activate the different installations yourself and disentangle a patchwork of impressions and stories by following a thread which inevitably leads back to you.

Sounds pretty neat we think!

Here's a little explanation from the artist and a festival coordinator.

You can see the full trailer for Forest Fruit art installation HERE.

Update October 2016:
From the February 2016 Exhibition in Holland (via auto-translate):

Naomi Kerkhove

Embroidery is hot and sewing is not only home industry. It may also be art. That shows the installation of the young artist Naomi Kerkhove.Naomi discovered one day that you can draw with a sewing machine. Meanwhile, she sews smooth miniature worlds.'Forest Fruit' is the place where you can see and feel all sewn stitching her wonderful white miniature world. If you are in her black and white world enters you fall from one surprise to another. 

You will be guided in a world that is a cross between a workshop and playroom. In this universe walk shapes and thoughts together and your imagination is slowly taken in tow. You can also get to work with many construction and gently unravels a patchwork of impressions and stories, along a thread which inevitably leads to yourself.An interactive, poetic and playful installation for all ages.

Naomi Kerkhove is currently an artist in residence at wpZimmer in Antwerp.

Creepy Crypts Halloween Tour With Hansel & Gretel (UK)

Louis Rhead

We couldn't resist - we had to share. The Irish sure know how to tell stories!

CREEPY CRYPTS HALLOWEEN TOUR WITH HANSEL & GRETEL

Saturday 29th - Sunday 30th October @ 6pm, 6.30pm, 7pm & 7.30pm
St. John’s Church, Knockainey, Co. Limerick IRELAND
 
Categories: Family Fun, Tours, Halloween


Creepy Crypts Halloween Tour with Hansel & Gretel - Knockainey Style.

Hansel & Gretel Halloween mini-panto show followed by Halloween Scares.

Suitable for all ages young and old. Parental discretion advised.

Ticket: €5 - Booking Essential

Isn't it a unique idea? Not sure what the blood on the poster is supposed to be saying about H&G though... (shudder).

Here's a little peek at the location 'with the lights on'.

Multi-Award Winning "H&G" Available to View for Limited Time

We covered this film as it was being made, back in 2013 HERE, knowing with indie film director Danishka Esterhazy at the helm, that it would be a worthy addition to the Hansel and Gretel re-tellings out there when it was complete. Critics and film festivals have confirmed it is, plying the film with multiple awards.

For the coming two weeks - a limited time - you can rent the film online to see it (94 minutes, English and PG), via this website, celebrating excellence in Canadian film making HERE.

From Esterhazy's Instagram account:

My film H&G is featured this week in the Canada Screens VIFF celebration. You can rent H&G for only $1.99 during the sale. There are some great films in this promotion! Visit canadascreens.ca

(Note for US folk: It's also available on Amazon Prime.)

Might be a good fairy tale film for the coming weekend, don't you think?

Here's the quick synopsis and the trailer below is a must-see:

A girl and boy. Brother and sister. Living in poverty and neglect. Lost in the woods. They see a house, rush toward it… it is magical. Full of good food, soft sheets, love and care. But in this house, danger lurks. And all they have is each other. The Brothers Grimm fairy tale Hansel and Gretel takes a modern neorealist twist in H&G.

Barking Gecko Theatre Company's Hansel & Gretel "In A Dark Dark Wood" (Perth, Australia)

West Australian Children's Theatre Company, Barking Gecko, continues its mission of bringing quality theatre to the children of Perth and surrounding areas, with their new fairy tale show In A Dark Dark Wood. The show, a retelling of Hansel and Gretel, uses a modern take, combining live action, shadow puppets and object theater to tell the spooky-yet-magical story.

Hansel and Gretel is one of those tales that makes a huge impression on children and one of the fairy tales children generally remember almost the entire plot of (though often excluding the duck which helps the kids escape, which most modern tellers seem to omit, of not be aware of).

It's pretty neat that the playwright who worked with the creator had traveled the famous Fairy Tale Road in Germany, already aware and immersing himself in the environment out of which grew many of the Grimm's collected tales.

Barking Gecko artistic director Matt Edgerton, who is directing the production, collaborated with award-winning Australian playwright Caleb Lewis on this modern take on the Brothers Grimm fairy taleHansel and Gretel. 

“I was really excited about sort of attacking a Grimms’ fairy tale,” Edgerton said. 

“They’re wonderful stories that have lasted for hundreds of years because they have deep things to say about who we are as humans, but I wanted to do it in a contemporary way. 

“I thought Caleb would be a perfect partner with that because he’s a wonderful lyrical writer, but really playful, and is obsessed with Grimms’ fairy tales; he’s walked the Grimms’ fairy tale route in Germany, reading nothing but their fairy tales as he went.” 

Edgerton said he was drawn to Hansel and Gretel because of its universal themes. 

“There’s something about the central idea around the fear of abandonment which every child knows,” he said. 

“And most adults have repressed it in some way, but it’s still in us. 

“It’s a beautiful story because it explores that in a really full way and finishes with the message that all of us have the power to find our way home. 

“There’s hopefulness at the end and the idea that theatre is a safe place to explore dangerous ideas is true for something like Hansel and Gretel.” 

Barking Gecko admits to having a lot of fun with their version, aimed at children aged 6 and up. There's "fun, magic and an excess of junk food" - what wouldn't a kid love about that?

Here's their description:

In a Dark Dark Wood is a magical fantasy that brings Hansel and Gretel to a new generation in a strikingly original retelling of the Grimms’ classic fairy tale. 

Pippa and her little brother Mo live in a caravan at the edge of the woods. Since Dad hurt his back cutting wood, the family has struggled to make ends meet. Even though they may be poor, the children are gifted with a rich imagination.After Pippa gets the worst birthday present ever and overhears her worried parents talking, she decides the way to help, is to leave. Pippa packs her belongings and takes off into the woods, with little brother Mo hot on her heels.Hopelessly lost in the dark, dark woods, the pair stumble onto a lonely beach and discover a world with no rules and endless ice cream! But all is not what it seems. Pippa and Mo will have to call on all of their imaginative powers to escape! 

With spooky puppets, magical animals and fast paced storytelling, this theatre production will take audiences aged 6 and over through the dark, dark woods and safely home again. 

Recommended for ages 6 and up – Contains spooky bits that may make your knees wobble! 

Running time approximately 60 minutes

Where and when: 

• UWA’s Dolphin Theatre (September 23-24)
• Prendiville Performing Arts Centre, Ocean Reef (September 27),
• Kalamunda Performing Arts Centre (September 29)
• Don Russell Performing Arts Centre, Thornlie (October 4)
• Mandurah Performing Arts Centre (October 6-8)

Tim Burton's Long Lost Disney Project: "Hansel & Gretel" (1982)

This "long lost" film resurfaced on YouTube last year while I was in recovery and I found my note to myself to post the news on OUABlog when I returned, just today. (The images included are some of Burton's concept art for the project.)

A little background:
The film was conceptualized and created by Tim Burton whilst in Disney's employ. It aired one time only on Halloween night in 1983 on the The Disney Channel, due to the Disney Executives horrified reactions when they saw it on air, and I think, in this instance, they were right. It doesn't really fall within the Disney branding, and I wouldn't have been pleased to find a little one watching this either! (Did no one check the show before it aired? Yikes.)

The film was included in the MoMA exhibit that featured Burton's earlier and lesser known works and history a few years ago but hasn't been available to see anywhere before or since (except in Paris for a similar exhibition).

The movie is usually classified stop motion, though it uses real (amateur) actors, all of whom are Japanese*. (Note: it's also Tim Burton's first time working with live actors, which may be apparent in the quality of performance, though his direction is often very imaginative.) In yet another interesting choice, (especially for the time period) the same male actor plays both the Stepmother and the Witch. Seen throughout are designs now considered "Burtonesque", many of which might be considered precursors to other film designs seen in Frankenweenie and The Nightmare Before Christmas. There's interesting use of birds in this one too (duck and swan in particular), and that little toy duck looks remarkably like one Jack Skellington has Halloween town make as one of the presents.

From Wikipedia:

Filmed for $116,000 on 16mm, this live-action short film featured a cast of amateur Japanese actors, kung fu fights (despite kung fu being Chinese) and Japanese toys, as Burton was obsessed with Japanese culture at the time of production. The film's design style and color schemes paid homage to the Godzilla movies and is said to be heavy on special effects, making use of front projection, forced perspective and even some stop-motion animation.

Here you go. Enjoy! (Or, be creeped out):

CAST--------- 

Hansel - Andy Lee 

Gretel - Alison Hong 

Stepmother / Wicked Witch - Michael Yama  

Father - Jim Ishida 

Dan Dan the Gingerbread Man (voice) - David Koenigsburg 

Features early work by Stephen Chiodo of the Chiodo Bros. Studio as well as the late Joe Ranft of Disney and Pixar. 

Music by John Costa of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood fame!(source)

Can I just say: I'm just not going to ask what the Father did to the Stepmother, and I will stick with my regular Gingerbread Men, thank you very much!

* Has anyone else noticed the Asian (specifically Japanese) fascination with Hansel and Gretel? I wonder what it is about the tale, exactly?

Look What's Coming Soon From Neil Gaiman & Lorenzo Mattotti: Hansel & Gretel

A unique Hansel and Gretel by Neil Gaiman and Lorenzo Mattotti! Lots of pics and a video to entice you.. 

The illustrations have been around for a few years (I remember seeing them for the first time back in 2009) but now they're being partnered with Neil Gaiman's words.... *heart*!

The release date is October 28, 2014 - the perfect Halloween present (and isn't it just!).

This all happened a long time ago, in your grandmother’s time, or in her grandfather’s. A long time ago. Back then, we all lived on the edge of the great forest.

Neil Gaiman and Lorenzo Mattotti both remember the horror and fascination with which they read the Grimm Brothers’ “Hansel and Gretel.” The writer and the artist now join forces for a brilliant reimagining of one of humanity’s most enduring tales. Be brave, be bold, and keep your wits about you–Gaiman and Mattotti are welcoming you into the woods.

From the Press Release:

“TOON Graphics are comics and visual narratives that bring the text to life in a way that captures young readers’ imaginations and makes them want to read on—and read more. Children also develop their aesthetic sense when they experience the relationship of text to picture in all its communicative power. Vetted by our team of educational experts, TOON Graphics introduce great storytelling traditions from around the world.”

Directly related is a set of audio recordings of Neil Gaiman, speaking on why scary stories appeal to us and the art of fear in children's books. You can find the whole set HERE.

And now the promised illustrations... just amazing and so very vivid, despite them being in black and white.

This is in Italian but you get to watch Mr. Mattotti paint! Just amazing.

Lorenzo Mattotti and some of his illustrations

Who's pre-ordering besides me?

Sources: HERE, HERE , HERE , HERE, HERE & HERE