‘Do as your Mother tells you or you will be eaten by someone who looks strangely like her’ was the moral of the story at Pop-up opera’s interpretation of Humperdink’s 1894 Hansel and Gretel. Their mission is to stage opera in places where it wouldn’t usually be staged and make it more accessible for any audience member. Whilst this is a noble cause I feel as if they relied on the wrong devices to make it ‘accessible’.
As I walked into the V&A Museum of Childhood’s gift shop I was greeted with a piano, two projectors and a fridge. The slight modern twist on this contemporary classic is nice to see but is updating a minimalist set what is needed to make it relatable to modern audiences? Apparently it’s not all that’s needed. The projector screens are narrating what is being sung; however I feel slightly cheated by this.
