An analysis on the end of the piece

Personal feedback/reflection on watching the ending of the piece from last week:

The climax

For the cage for hansel, we used our sticks to trap Emily. We extended our bodies while holding the sticks to embody the cage, not just hold the sticks in front of her. The sense of confining creates the sign of danger to the audience. Gretel was summoned to do jobs for the witch, we showed this through repeated phrases and gesture. She was "tired, weak and scared" and used gestures of wiping sweat off the head, cooking, and cleaning. This is accompanied with a 4 beat rhythm with a stick that gets faster. the repetition and speed builds the tension and also shows the time passing over the days, with the same routine under the power of the witch. 

The oven

We create a drone as an ensemble through humming in notes that don't fit together to make the noise sound unpleasant and machine-like. One person starts off this drone and then we all join in to increase the intensity, tension and volume. Its also a cinematic technique to suggest something bad is about to happen. We all copy the witches gestures when she's talking about the oven to exaggerate we are one body, heightening the witches power, and making it more clear for the audience. We are a tight clump around the witch at this point to show how closely we follow and obey her. We also used a block for the witch to stand on to portray her power and status. The use of the red fabric around the witch symbolises danger and the flames of the oven/hell when she dies and we lift it up and pull it away.  The use of the red lighting was to symbolise the danger, red flames, and hell. 

The resolution

After the witch is gone, we all stand lifeless, eyes closed, slowly swaying to represent our spirits are in a still state, not cursed, but not free. Each spirit gets touched by either hansel or gretel to wake up and we use an impulse through our body to create a dynamic between the lifeless, slow swaying, to the sudden impulse of being brought out of the spell we were under. It is to portray our souls being freed and coming back to our child spirit once again. We all then hold hands in a semi circle to show unity and that we are all comforting one another as we have all been through the same traumatic experience. During this whole section, we hum the song we sang earlier. It starts off with just 2 people humming it all the way through, and then we all hum it as we form the semi circle. Hansel mentions this in her narration, "joyful sound... as they ascended to heaven". This song relates to religion, which fits well with being freed from an evil curse.

The themes

Transformation- All folk stories have this theme of transformation. At the start of the story, Gretel was helpless, reliant and emotional. She then became independent, had initiative to kill the witch and save her brother. Hansel had initiative to to trick the witch. He becomes very clever and cunning and learns to use her weakness (sight) against her. The spirits change from menacing, inciting, and like a pack of wild animals, to a free, positive force. 

Pagan and Christian- The theme of Christianity is common in folk stories. All good spirts go to heaven, and all damned spirits burn in hell. The civilised world  is seen as Christian. The uncivilised world, such as the woods/forest is seen as pagan. 

Cannibalism in all folk stories is punishable by death. it is seen as the worst crime in civilisation. you will be sent to hell (like the witch in the oven).