Tin Soldier and Other Plays for Children: adapted from (The Steadfast Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Andersen) A Tasty Tale (Hansel and Gretel) Hood in the Wood (Little Red Riding Hood)

By Noel Greig, David Johnston and Hans Christian Andersen

A collection of three enchanting plays adapted from popular fairy tales and suitable for family audiences: Tin Soldier (adapted from The Steadfast Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Andersen), A Tasty Tale (Hansel and Gretel), Hood in the Wood (Little Red Riding Hood).

Acclaimed playwright Noel Greig, has recreated these well-known tales for the stage with wit and imagination. All three plays have been performed throughout the UK by Tangere Arts, winning a Time Out Critics' Choice Award.

Teachers, youth theatres and amateur groups working with young performers will use this collection time and again for productions, drama classes and workshops - whether for one performer or many.

Suitable for children aged 7+

The simple form and language of the plays belie their theatrical and psychological sophistication.

Tin Soldier
' a powerful poetic drama, an epic fable for our times.' ****  Independent

A Tasty Tale (Hansel and Gretel)
' Delicious moments... fashioned into a rhyming feast.' **** Time Out

Hood in the Wood (Little Red Riding Hood)
' a first-rate piece of storytelling that will make children squeal with terrified delight and parents shiver with recognition. ' ****  Guardian

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishdrive
• Release date: Feb 9, 2017
• ISBN: 9781906582227

Book preview

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Tin Soldier

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and other plays

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for children

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by

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Noël Greig

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AURORA METRO PRESS

Introduction

David Johnston

I first met Noël Greig in 1986. I was director of London’s Theatre Centre, the country’s largest and oldest children’s professional touring theatre company, and we were looking for new writers who would be able to deliver the kind of sophisticated, political young people’s theatre that we had become famous for and wanted to develop further. We found Noël Greig. He went on to write many plays for Theatre Centre, long after I had moved on. He also became crucial as the company dramaturg, and an inspiration for many young writers, several of whom have since become very well known indeed.

Noël was a great wordsmith whose writing displayed a deep understanding of the human condition. He wrote over fifty plays, for both children and adults, many of which were performed internationally. Although only around a dozen of these plays have been published, when you read his work, his compassion springs off the page and the poetic language can take your breath away.

We are therefore immensely pleased to be publishing this trilogy of his plays for children in a single collection. Hood in the Wood, A Tasty Tale – the true story of Hansel and Gretel and Tin Soldier were all produced by Tangere Arts between 2005 and 2008.

I had first commissioned Hood in the Wood in 1993 for Nottingham Playhouse Roundabout to be performed by four actors playing the roles of Little Red, her mother, grandmother, the wolf and a narrator/percussionist. It toured to Nottinghamshire schools with great success, performing to 7 to 11 year olds.

In 2003, when Ava Hunt and myself started the Tangere Arts project with a commitment to small-scale, minimalist theatre for children and communities in the East Midlands, it seemed a natural piece to re-visit. I had always suspected that the inner strengths of the writing in Hood in the Wood might best be revealed through a one-person performance, and having an excellent performer such as Gary Lagden in the team, who had previously worked with Noël on several other projects, it seemed a natural project to propose.

Noël took to the project immediately, and in summer 2005 we rapidly produced a workshop version for local schools, which proved successful. However, we felt it would benefit from live music so when Lewis Gibson became available, we brought him in to the production. He not only played his own excellent violin accompaniment but also added a range of unusual instruments, creating amazing sounds that took the show to another level. The music and the musician not only created a soundtrack for the poetry of Noël’s words and Gary’s highly physical performance style, but became fully interwoven into the story and the production.

Originally, we had planned simply to tour the piece around regional schools and then to move on to our next project. However, Noël’s illness obliged us to bring the play down to London for a small showcase for himself and friends. Remarkably, the success of this led to a four week run at London’s Unicorn Theatre, an invitation to the annual Take Off international festival, national touring to theatres, arts centres and village halls as well as two residencies at Manchester’s Royal Exchange studio for their Christmas programme.

Gary Lagden as the Wolf in Hood in the Wood

(photo: University of Derby)

Hood in the Wood is an extraordinary piece, probably Noël’s best in this genre. It tells the story very much from the point of view of Little Red, as a ‘rites of passage’ feminist fable with a truly scary wolf, and a very bloody climax. Hood takes on and destroys the wolf with no woodcutters in sight, obliterating him brutally, only pausing to wrap his pelt around herself and move forward into womanhood. It is loved by one and all.

Gary Lagden and Lewis Gibson in A Tasty Tale

(photo: Chris Webb)

The beauty of Noël’s writing is that it allows the audience to make their own interpretations, and find parallels within themselves and the world around them. His writing is never didactic or prescriptive but rather it is lyrical, touching, visceral and sometimes downright scary. In particular, the sequence where Hood first meets the wolf and ends up riding on the wolf’s back is certainly memorable.

In 2007, A Tasty Tale, based on the story of Hansel and Gretel, went into East Midlands schools, and was followed by residencies at the Unicorn and Royal Exchange for Christmas.

However, whether we were over-ambitious, or perhaps because we went from the writing to the finished production too rapidly without proper reflection, the process wasn’t easy.

Noël had written a very different type of script, equally as poetic and interesting as Hood in the Wood but it involved a great deal of movement backwards and forwards in time and space. It had a cast of 8 to 10 characters and a narrator who was not a