Who takes their young children to see a play about a wicked witch who throws small children into an oven? The answer: I do. I was thinking this, as we were watching Hansel and Gretel a couple of weeks ago. We had read the book, so the boys knew the storyline and didn’t seem troubled. When we went to see the play, however, Colm was a bit disturbed…since we had read the book, he knew what was coming and buried his head in my shoulder anticipating the arrival of the witch. Now, the pamphlet had said that the story had been adapted for small children so I trusted that the whole “children burning” thing would be kept to a minimum as would the wickedness of the witch. Colm and I were both pleasantly surprised. Not only was the witch not too scary, they had actually made her look kind of pretty. She even did a little upbeat song and dance. That said, when the play was over and the children can meet and speak with the actors on the way out, Colm made a very concerted effort to avoid the witch…even a pretty, singing, dancing witch is still a witch.
