Hansel and Gretel, Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh / Baby Rave, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh NOTHING, it seems, is beyond the scope of the Bank of Scotland Children's International Theatre Festival. Tots still mastering the art of walking were able to go clubbing at the weekend's Baby Raves, and get in a cheerfully energising groove, with ambient lighting, irresistible rhythms and play-mate assistants who could make a length of cloth into a swinging hammock or a sled - parents took note and promptly joined in the action.
At Brunton, Catherine Wheels excelled themselves by bringing a real wee wood indoors for a revival of the site-specific Hansel and Gretel that - as Home: East Lothian - helped launch the National Theatre of Scotland in 2005. It's hard to match the bone-chilling atmosphere of that original, or re-create the dank, November spookiness of the Prestongrange setting, but designer Karen Tennent has devised a promenade pathway full of eye-widening surprises that run a tantalising gamut from the weirdly hilarious - the family's kitsch 1970s home, which we actually enter - to the eerily strange: a twisty walk through a warren of abandoned toys.
Best of all, the Catherine Wheels team has re-assembled the witch's house in all its deceiving tricksiness and detailed grotesquerie. There Cath Whitefield - reprising her role as scheming step-mum and whimsically vicious witch - is in her hyperactive element, crooning and shrieking as she eyeballs us speculatively before deciding Hansel (Tommy Mullins) will be Dish of the Day.
Without the outside elements, Gill Robertson's script and direction also come more to the fore: the mix of dark cruelty - parental indifference, the conniving kindness of strangers - is astutely tempered by lovely touches of ridiculous horror... the pet's collar in the step-mum's soup pot is one inspired example where laughter and nausea vie in making you choke.
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