This is an excerpt from Jack Neary's adaptation of HANSEL AND GRETEL. The complete script is available by clicking HERE.
HANSEL AND GRETEL
The play takes place in a number of
locations: The hovel, various places
in the forest, and outside Granny's
Gingerbread House.
We open at the hovel, deep in the
forest. Spare. Only the bare
necessities. Two rooms are visible:
the main family room, and a small
bedroom for the children. A door
separates the room, one other entrance
leads outside, another to the back of
the house. A small family sits around
a table in the main room. Four wooden
cups and empty wooden plates. One tiny
loaf of bread on a plate in the center
of the table. The family consists of
the FATHER, the AUNT, HANSEL, a young
boy, and his younger sister GRETEL.
All heads are bowed in grace.
FATHER
We thank thee, Lord, for the blessings you have bestowed upon
us, and for the meal we are about to enjoy.
FATHER, HANSEL AND GRETEL
Amen.
AUNT
(angrily)
Enjoy--ha!
FATHER
Sister...please...
The Father takes the loaf of bread and
tears off one piece at a time to
distribute to the family. The first
piece goes to the Aunt, the second to
Gretel, the third to Hansel. The
Father then keeps the tiniest piece of
bread for himself. The aunt watches
this distribution carefully.
AUNT
NO!
The Aunt takes Hansel's piece of bread
and exchanges it with the Father's
smaller piece.
FATHER
Sister--what are you doing?
AUNT
You must have the larger piece! The boy didn't eat the bread
from his noon meal. He obviously doesn't need it!
FATHER
But, Sister, Hansel gave his bread to that hungry beggar at
the door!
AUNT
Exactly! And if he thinks he can waste the precious little
bread we have on hungry beggars, then he can have the smaller
piece tonight! Now eat! All of you!
FATHER
(calmly)
Hansel. Gretel. Please take your plates to your room and
eat there. I want to speak with your Aunt.
AUNT
Oh, say whatever you want to say! They're old enough to
hear!
FATHER
Hansel? Gretel?
The children rise. The Father
exchanges the pieces of bread again,
then Hansel and Gretel take their
plates and slip quietly off to their
room.
AUNT
You foolish old man.
FATHER
I have asked you time and time again to be civil at the
table.
AUNT
What good has civility ever done me?
FATHER
The way you treat them it's a wonder they don't pack their
belongings and run away.
AUNT
Aha! Now you're beginning to see my side of it!
FATHER
Sister! How dare you speak that way!
AUNT
I'll speak whichever way it is will get me my next meal.
FATHER
I'll get work. I'll be making a living again and I'll put
food on the table. You just wait!
AUNT
Wait? Wait for what? Who's going to give work to a
woodcutter in the middle of a drought? It's too hot to build
a fire. Too hot to build homes. The woodpile in the village
reaches to the skies! We're dying, Joseph, in case you
haven't noticed. Until the rains come, we have enough food
for two people, not four. We'd be better off if they DID run
away!
FATHER
(distraught)
Jenella...Jenella would know what to do...
AUNT
(mocking)
Jenella! Jenella! As if that wife of yours could have saved
us.
FATHER
She'd know how to keep the family together.
AUNT
Sentimental hogwash! She's better off dead than we are
alive!
FATHER
Well...what do you propose to do about it?
AUNT
(beat)
You'll listen to me?
FATHER
I'm at the end of my rope.
AUNT
Well, then...I do have a proposal to make.
FATHER
Go on...
AUNT
Hear me out, now! Don't jump down my throat!
FATHER
What is your proposal?
AUNT
The children will do better on their own.
FATHER
Don't be ridiculous...
AUNT
Hear me out!
(beat)
While they're here, they're stifled by our rules. You
yourself know they hate me.
FATHER
No, Sister, they...
AUNT
They hate me, Joseph. And with good reason, I might add. I
hate them.
FATHER
Sister...
AUNT
Listen! Without my rancor and without your...smothering
overprotectiveness, they will learn how to survive. I'm sure
of that.
FATHER
But they're so young...
AUNT
They're old enough.
FATHER
It's folly! Besides, they'd never agree. They would never
leave.
AUNT
They won't know they're leaving.
FATHER
What?
AUNT
It's very simple. Tomorrow, we take them for a walk, deep
into the forest. We tell them we're going on a picnic.
Then, when we reach the hollows...
FATHER
Sister, no...