Theatre review: .H.G., Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
In truth, though, this beautiful and searching response to the story of Hansel and Gretel seems to me a wholly adult event, a mature woman’s reflection on the terrible underlying violence of a tale in which two children are first abandoned to die in the forest, and then almost consumed by a wicked witch who lures them into her gingerbread cottage, only to fatten them for her oven.
Over nine installations, arranged like a dark indoor maze, the middle-aged woman’s voice on our headphones – sometimes surrounded by the voices of the children – leads us deeper into the story, until we pass through a creaking wooden door.
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Hide AdThere is a long, dark, winding walk through a miniature forest of six-inch pine trees, and suddenly the cottage, with a seductive smell of cinnamon in the air, and an interior of tiny bleached bones.
The voices tell us how the witch finally dies, in her own oven; but then there is a final, sobering installation – the outline of a body on the floor, a cabinet of burnt and abandoned remains – that makes us think of other ovens, in another Europe. At the beginning, the voice tells us how she wanted a happy ending; yet in the end, after a sobering 30 minutes, there’s a deep and disturbing sense that none has been achieved.
Rating: ****