Windmill Theatre Is Taking On Classic Folktale Hansel and Gretel – with a Nightmarish Lynchian Adaptation

Photo: Courtesy of Windmill Theatre / Thomas McCammon

Written by award-winning Australian playwright Lally Katz, this even darker version of the grisly story is set in a dystopian future and uses personalised audio to create conflicting narratives, so no one show is the same for the whole audience.

Hansel and Gretel is fertile ground for a dystopian adaptation. The classic children’s fairytale involves cannibalism, child neglect and starvation – a ripe jumping off point for Windmill Theatre Co’s anarchic psychological thriller, Hans & Gret, which premieres as part of Adelaide Festival next month.

“This particular story started in the 1300s, when there was dreadful famine, and there was cannibalism,” says Windmill’s incoming artistic director Clare Watson. “There were children being sent off into the woods to starve to death. It’s a story that is gruesome and harsh … the DNA of the story is horror.”

In this version, the story takes place in a dystopian future struck down by famine, and Hans and Gret are two teens who live a privileged life in a gated community that shields them from the realities of the outside world. That is, until young people start disappearing around them and adults begin to miraculously get younger in front of their eyes.

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“In this particular future, our obsession with anti-aging has been amplified and there is a business in which young people are being harvested for their youth,” says Watson. “It kind of makes you go, ‘What is in that tincture? What is in that serum?’”

The story that will play out at the Queen’s Theatre next month is based on a concept by former artistic director Rosemary Myers – who left her position last year to focus on Windmill's film and television arm, Windmill Pictures – and written by acclaimed Australian playwright Lally Katz.

“She’s a brilliant writer – she manages to be incredibly engaging, often hilariously funny, and at the same time, there's something in her work that’s almost like a dream,” says Watson. “It’s on the verge of nightmare … So even when we’re being entertained, there’s something in there that feels unsettling. So if you think of the work of David Lynch, for example, I think that’s a perfect example of the kind of unsettling feeling that this work provides for an audience. And leaning into that for a teen audience is just delicious. It’s so much fun.

“Part of what feels so exciting about this play is the integration of multiple layers, multiple narrative streams, and multiple perspectives,” adds Watson. “It’s so arresting.”

Audience members will be fitted with cutting-edge “bone conduction” headphones (which transmit sound through the vibration directly into the bones of the inner ear) to upend traditional storytelling so that no one show is the same for the whole audience.

“Usually when you’re sitting in a theatre, you have a collective experience, like, that’s one of the joys of being in the theatre,” says Watson. “And at the same time, where you’re sitting, and the night that you go on, and the particular performance that you see, kind of means that you’re both having a collective experience and an individual experience, and one that’s never going to be repeated for anybody ever again. You also bring your own kind of cultural landscape to the work and you read it in a particular way.”

Hans and Gret takes that idea and – through conflicting narratives and personalised audio – amplifies the individual experience even further (though the makers want to keep under wraps just how this plays out).

“I look at the way we’re using the headphone technology and it’s almost like it casts a spell over the audience,” hints Watson.

The play stars local performers Jo Stone, Antoine Jelk, James Smith, Temeka Lawlor, Dylan Miller, and Emily Liu alongside Sydney-based Gareth Davies. At the centre of the show will sit an eight-metre-high reimagining of the fairytale’s famous gingerbread house designed by resident designer Jonathon Oxlade.

“It’s a house that’s made entirely of mirror,” says Watson. “It’s almost like there’s been some alien landing in the Queen’s [Theatre]. It’s beautiful and pristine and it’s also theatrically highly functional.”

Watson wants to make clear that there’s also light amid the darkness, such as several dance routines choreographed by Australian Dance Theatre’s Larissa McGowan. “So while I’ve talked about body horror and terror and violence, it’s also a fantastically entertaining work. With banging tunes and dance numbers.”

Hans & Gret runs from March 3 to 12 at the Queen's Theatre. Tickets are online now.

windmill.org.au

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