Hansel and Gretel

Hold on to your gingerbread lattes! This year’s outdoor Christmas show at the Globe – that is, it’s not in the indoor Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, it’s really outside – is a brand new verse adaptation of the classic fairytale ‘Hansel and Gretel’ courtesy of the great Simon Armitage. It nominally ran last Christmas, but the production was so ravaged by cast illness that much of the run was cancelled. It never had a press night and consequently we’re a bit vague on precisely what to expect from Armitage’s: the basics of the story are usually pretty similar (children lost in woods, breadcrumbs, witch, sweets), but the levels of sentimentality tend to vary dramatically, though as it’s ages five-plus it presumably won’t be too dark.