Gretel, Hansel, and the others

One night on their way home from school, Gretel and her little brother Hansel disappear. Kidnapping? Accident? Or just two children running away? The adults, parents and police alike, worry. They search, they investigate. And we spectators follow them into a world from which all flavour has disappeared… curious to discover the adventures of those two children in the forest, where they come across a mysterious tree, a squirrel, a witch, and an infamous gingerbread house… With Gretel, Hansel, and the others, Igor Mendjisky invites us into a wonderment factory, onto a stage littered with models full of sounds, animations, and music, and in which appear characters both real and dreamed-up. A theatrical adventure which plays with what is perhaps the most famous of the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tale, and of whose heroine the director says that “the concerns of the adults don’t seem to fit within her life. So she decides to leave…” Let’s follow her!

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were two German brothers, both linguists. Together, they collected and studied folk tales. In 1812, Children’s and Household Tales was first published, collecting in written form popular legends passed down orally for decades. Those 86 fairy tales, including Snow White and Hansel and Gretel, are now known throughout the world.

With Sylvain Debry, Igor Mendjisky, Esther Van Den Driessche

Texte, direction Igor Mendjisky
Dramaturgy Charlotte Farcet
Music Raphaël Charpentier
Set design Anne-Sophie Grac, Igor Mendjisky
Lights Stéphane Deschamps
Video, animation Yannick Donet, Cléo Sarrazin
Set construction Jean-Luc Malavasi
Costumes, accessories May Katrem, Sandrine Gimenez 
Assistant direction Thomas Christin
Administration, production and diffusion Olivier Talpaert

Production Moya Krysa
Co-production Festival d’Avignon, La Colline Théâtre national, Les Célestins Théâtre de Lyon, L’Azimut (Antony and Châtenay-Malabry), Le Grand T Théâtre de Loire-Atlantique (Nantes), Les Gémeaux Scène nationale (Sceaux), Théâtre national de Nice CDN Nice Côte d’Azur, Théâtre Romain Rolland (Villejuif)
With the support of the Direction régionale des affaires culturelles d’Île-de-France – ministère de la Culture, of the Région Ile-de-France, the insertion fund for young actors of the ESAD - PSPBB, the Espace Sorano
With the artistic participation of the Jeune Théâtre National

Igor Mendjisky is an associate artist at L'Azimut (Antony, Châtenay et Malabry)