Hansel and Gretel review: Revamped fairy tale casts its spell

There’s a breath-catching moment in Stephen Medcalf’s new production of Hansel and Gretel when the impoverished Father gestures towards the Grange Park audience, shortly to embark on its champagne-fuelled picnic.

The hunger of his children are neatly pointed up: in Yannis Thavoris’s design the size of the room the family shares is painfully obvious and we return there at the end. The gingerbread children may have been set free, but the postures of the Father and Mother imply that they see no end to the cycle of deprivation.

In Medcalf’s witty and imaginative rethinking, the forest becomes a Dickensian street where the children have learnt how to pickpocket. Also welcome is the desentimentalised children’s prayer: they giggle as they kneel down — though it may also have something to do with the fumes of the hookah pipe smoked by this Sandman (Eleanor Sanderson-Nash). Caitlin Hulcup is outstanding as Hansel, both in her phrasing and in her convincingly boyish persona. Soraya Mafi is also a fine Gretel and there are admirable contributions too from William Dazeley (Father) and Lizzie Holmes (Dew Fairy). But it’s Susan Bullock as the Witch (she doubles as the Mother) that steals the show. She dementedly prepares a monstrous pie, scattering sackfuls of flour in all directions; most of the cooking brandy goes down her own throat. Her delivery is hilariously comic but with a lethal edge.

The acoustics of this endearingly quirky opera house are excellent and the ENO orchestra sounded radiant under the accomplished direction of George Jackson. Textural detail emerged clearly and the dramatic momentum was unfaltering.

Until Jul 10 (01962 737373, grangeparkopera.co.uk)