A beautifully epic new version of The Brothers Grimm’s fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel, by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, transforms the Globe Theatre this winter.

 

The boy’s name was Hansel. The girl’s name was Gretel. The dad was a woodcutter. The mum was a bread maker. In the rubble of their war-torn village, the woodcutting dad and the breadmaking mum decide that the only chance they have to give their children a safer life is to lead them – and leave them – in the woods. Left to fend for themselves, Hansel and Gretel’s plans to find their way home get side-tracked, quite literally, by a trail of treats too good to resist and a strange old lady with a plan of her own…

 

Filled with music, magic, songs and a sprinkling of hope, the stage premiere of this new production of Simon Armitage’s poem, directed by Nick Bagnall (Love's Labour's Lost; Two Gentlemen of Verona, Globe), is the perfect treat for everyone aged 5+. ‘A road made of bits of bread, says she? Yes, a road, and a road we can eat – follow me!’