Hansel and Gretel

Retro Dreamscape

Hansel and Gretel

by Hannah Lobley

Teddington Theatre Club at the Hampton Hill Theatre until 6^th December

Review by Brent Muirhouse

Pantomime, by its very nature, is fun. Many pantos lean heavily on stories most of the audience have known since childhood, and follow a plot that is expected, decorated with a few moments of more updated candy-cane comedy and titters o’ tinsel. Few tend to open with ten minutes in which one wonders quite sincerely what on earth is going on, like Teddington Theatre Company’s production of Hansel and Gretel at the Hampton Hill Theatre.

A garish, brash, and gloriously chaotic prologue introduced a familiar aspect of the Grimm’s tale, an enticing gingerbread abode, but soon this was baked into a the roaring oven of a first musical number that seemed to materialise from nowhere. Whilst initially misplaced, perhaps even illogical, this jarring U-turn – befitting of this government and the 73 that came before it – signalled the whole affair beginning to snowball into that unmistakable cocktail of silliness and sincerity that makes panto panto. The fact this review is covering a play that had references to the forests of Bavaria, Margaret Thatcher’s infamous milk ‘snatching’, and the bangers of Chappell Roan is more than testament to the fact that this Hansel and Gretel took a different route to how you might remember the story going originally.

It helps when everyone on stage was fully game, exuding the sort of infectious enthusiasm that reassures you almost immediately that, however unhinged things appear as – for example, a thinly-disguised Rick Astley threatens to ‘Rickroll’ the audience repeatedly (the character, played by Alex Farley is also given the title of the mid-noughties internet craze) – the performance is firmly in safe hands. There was a dramatic familiar face appearing – William Tillett as Hansel in a role very different to his award-winning turn as the lead in TTC’s Curious Incident this summer – but the overall sense was of a welcoming and playful cast relishing the opportunity to tread the boards in festive technicolour.

Director Ian Kinane leant wholeheartedly into this surrealism with this production. The traditional darkness of the Grimm brothers’ deep, dark forest suddenly, and with absolutely no concern for linear narrative logic, and nor should it, slid into a neon-lit 1980s ‘Hamlin’s Diner’ (patrolled by a squadron of the aforementioned ‘milk snatchers’). The Black Forest Time Portal (aside from being a name of a band I wished existed so that I could see them play live) created a juxtaposition became part of the charm of this production, with credit to set designer Fiona Auty. To the younger audience, a whimsical device that delighted, for the older audience a warm nostalgic flicker (plus a generous serving of double-entendres, some subtle, some bricks). Within this retro dreamscape, a motley crew was assembled. The result was a pantomime fellowship comprising Hansel and Gretel, a New Romantic reimagining of Prince Charming (now simply ‘Charming’, a nod to an eighties Adam Ant), and several equally colourful companions including Dame Jane (David Hannigan, doubling up as the Pied Piper), who has more one-liners than all five days of this year’s International Conga Conference.

The musical playlist itself was a highlight: an eclectic sweep of tracks so wide-ranging that even the most aggressively well-rounded Spotify user would struggle to claim familiarity with all of them, unless they were shuffling through Anastacia, The Archies, The Human League, Doja Cat, and the soundtrack of Wicked. Numbers erupted with irregularity and glee, punctuated by rapid-fire gags, prop-based absurdity, and, of course, a number of shouts of ‘they’re behind you!’ And, just when one feared the humour might plateau, it veered into surprisingly sharp satire on today’s politics and the sense of belonging.

Although narrative coherence was something of a secondary concern – Hansel falling in love with Charming, Charming falling in love right back, a kidnapping, a feud, a rescue, throw in a song – the emotional undertone to this production, around finding your place in life, was affecting. The performance understood that panto succeeds not through tight plotting but through feeling: the atmosphere of connection between performers and audience, the permission to surrender to silliness, the joy of watching it all unfurl.

That is not to say there weren’t impressive performances in the truest sense. As Gretel, Georgia Barnwell’s vocals were outstanding, with a special mention for Gilda the Good Witch’s solo (Hollie Swale), and both titular siblings radiated a charisma that anchored the mayhem around them. Charming (Emily Fowler), meanwhile, offered a masterclass in anti-charisma in a deliberate subversion that played beautifully against the more earnest energy of the leads and of the pantomime more broadly. Dame Jane, the Wicked Witch (Lizzie Lattimore) plus the “not-so-ugly” sisters (September Taliana-Carey and Danielle Thompson) each brought that classic pantomime hamming, in exactly the right doses, relishing the boos and cheers like Henderson’s in Sheffield.

Ultimately, Hansel and Gretel succeeded in embracing the spirit and of pantomime. It was messy, musical, mischievous, and intermittently baffling but, most importantly, fun. By the time the final chorus rang out and the cast took their bows, I found myself leaving Hampton Hill Theatre with that peculiar, satisfied sense of festivity, glowing in ways both logical and illogical under the frosty winter hues, as I walked out onto the same streets I grew up on, smiling into street-lights of suburbia.

Brent Muirhouse, November 2025

Photography by Steve Sitton