Anthony’s Blog December 1, 2012
Hansel and Gretel
On Thursday, all our parents, family, friends, neighbours, and Waldorf families came to our fairy tale performance of ‘Hansel and Gretel’ at the Kay Meek Centre.
To open this year’s performance Aiden’s mother, Mrs. Fisher-Lang, introduced the fairy tale. She told everybody that about two hundred years ago, the Brothers Grimm published some fairy tales and travelled throughout Europe collecting others.
After a short introduction, Lorna’s Bell Choir performed music that she wrote herself except for one piece called ‘Water’ that was written by Sebastian, one of our former co-workers.
During the play, Patricia read to the audience the story of ‘Hansel and Gretel’ in a strong and powerful voice that she changed for every character, from the sweet voice of Gretel to the very scary voice of the wicked witch.
During all three performances Ruth T. stood at the bottom of the stage and directed all of the companions and the Waldorf School students during eurythmy.
This fairy tale takes place in a dark forest where an evil stepmother tries to abandon her two stepchildren because they were poor and starving. Their father who was a kind and loving person, did not want to leave his two children, but finally he gave in to his nagging wife. When Hansel overheard his parents arguing, he collected white pebbles to lay down as a pathway to find their way home. This was successful, but their parents again led them back to the forest. This time Hansel only had a bun so he dropped crumbs on the path which were eaten by the birds. Hansel and Gretel walked further into the forest. They found a small house that was made of candy, so they started to eat as much as they wanted.
Then an old woman crept out of the house and asked “who is nibbling at my house”? The two children lied and answered “The wind so mild”.
So the wicked witch took the children into her house, fed them to fatten them up so that she could cook and eat them. Hansel was taken outside and locked in a stable for three days. On the third day, the wicked witch decided to finally cook them so she asked Gretel to climb into the oven. Gretel, realizing the witch’s motives, asked the witch to show her how to climb into the oven. Then Gretel quickly pushed her in and the witch burned to death.
Now Hansel and Gretel were free to search for their way home and they were taken across the river by a white duck. When they got to their father’s house, they hugged and kissed him. He was very happy to see them both and they lived in perfect harmony.
I would like to say a special thank you to Ruth T. for designing the costumes and eurythmy, Patricia for narrating, Lorna and Marianne for teaching us the music and to Sonia and Wendalyn for their collaboration. Thank you also to the coworkers who helped us in the play.