Hansel and Gretel, The Royal Opera House

Hansel and Gretel returns to the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Studio Theatre this January, following its headline-grabbing May 2013 premiere. Brought forward to the 1950s, this contemporary Royal Ballet production draws out the darkness of Grimm’s fairy tale in a deeply sinister, at times blackly funny re-imagining, complete with a Hitchcock-esque cinematic score from BAFTA and Ivor Novello award-winning composer Dan Jones.  

This is the first full-length narrative ballet choreographed by prodigious Covent Garden Artist-in-Residence Liam Scarlett, who at just 26 has forged both an international career, and a reputation for intense and inventive narrative works. His cast of secondary characters, including a paedophile witch and menacing attendant Sandman, is matched in chilling imagination by Jon Bausor’s excellent set design and suitably eerie lighting effects by Paul Keogan. The effect is one you won’t forget in a hurry. The combination of the show’s bright pastel lighting and the Linbury’s intimate setting alternates between the feel of a technicolour TV film and a claustrophobic torture-chamber.

You’ll see this up-close if you’ve got the mettle to sit in the gallery - with seating arranged in traverse, on two sides of the stage, you may even find yourself walking through Hansel’s bedroom to get to your seat. 

Don’t miss out on this rerun if you didn’t get to see the production in 2013. This is twisted fairytale at it’s best.

Not suitable for the under-12s.

Linbury Studio Theatre

SOLD OUT

Address and Map:  Covent Garden, London WC2E 9DD

Nearest Tube: Covent Garden , Holborn