Flashback Friday - The The Story of Hansel and Gretel - Scene 2

It's time for part two. If you didn't have a chance to read the first scene, you can find it here. 

Scene 2

(Lights up. Curtain opens to see a village. It is a small, cozy town where everyone knows one another. There is a schoolhouse with a tree next to it.)

HANSEL

Once upon a time, in a faraway land…

GRETEL

(Interrupting.) Well, Freiburg, Germany anyway.

HANSEL

(To Gretel.) “Once upon a time” is how all these stories start. And “a faraway land” makes it sound magical or something. Like it could be anywhere.

GRETEL

(To Hansel.) Well, get on with it!

HANSEL

Where was I? (Thinking.) That’s right. “Once upon a time.” (Clears throat.) Once upon a time in a faraway land lived two children, Hansel (standing proudly)…

GRETEL

And his amazing sister, Gretel.

HANSEL

(Annoyed) Yes, my sister, Gretel. (They exchange annoyed glances with one another.) Anyway, we lived in a town named Freiburg.

GRETEL

Right outside the Black Forest.

HANSEL

Exactly. It was an ordinary town with ordinary people living ordinary lives. People doing their work and children going to school.

GRETEL

(Gasps) School? We’re late! (Grabs her brother’s arm and drags him to join their friends who have just walked onto the stage.)

KURT

(Seeing them.) Hansel! Gretel! Where have you been?

HANNAH

We can’t be late for school! Frau Klein hates it when we’re late!

OSKAR

(Slowing the group down. Irritated.) Kurt, Hannah, come on. It’s not that important. Why do we need to get to school on time? It’s not like Frau Klein is going to teach us anything important in the first minute of class.

GRETEL

They’re right, Oskar. We need to hurry!

(All the children run into the school, but Hansel pulls his sister back.)

HANSEL

Gretel, don’t forget we have a story to tell.

GRETEL

That’s right. (To audience) Every morning, all the children entered the old schoolhouse. Every day was basically the same. (Shifts.) At least it was, until….

(All the children are now under a tree by the schoolhouse talking. Hansel and Gretel join them in time to hear the end of something Oskar is saying.)

OSKAR

I promise you it’s true.

HANNAH

(Annoyed.) No way, I don’t believe it.

GRETEL

(Slightly concerned.) Tell it again.

OSKAR

(Slowly in a deep, scary voice.) Deep in the Black Forest there lived an old woman named Frau Koch. She had lived there alone for many years with only a scary-looking, one-eyed watch-dog for company. Then, one cold and dark night, when the moon was full, a curious boy named Luther got lost in the woods. A storm washed away his footprints. When he thought there was no hope of being saved, he saw light shining through the trees. Luther followed the light. In the middle of a clearing, he saw (pauses) a warn-down cottage. He walked up to the house. The lights went out. He took a deep breath. Knocked on the door. (Oskar knocks three times on the trunk of the tree behind him.) The house was silent. Dark. (Pauses.) Suddenly, the door flies open. He hears a cackle in the darkness and a voice shrieks out, (Voice changes to mimic the old woman.) “Come in, my pretty! It’s time for dinner!” (In his storytelling voice.) Luther was pulled into the house in a flash by a pair of green hands covered in warts. (Pauses for dramatic effect and looks around at the group.) He was never seen again.

(Children murmur in shock and fear.)

HANSEL

(Scoffs.) Wow, that’s a tale.

KURT

(Laughing.) I don’t believe it.

OSKAR

(Joking.) I swear it’s true.

GRETEL

(Nervously.) Come on, there’s no way a woman would eat a little boy.

HANNAH

(Also nervous.) Yeah, no one’s that hungry!

(Children continue talking in the background.)

GRETEL

(To the audience.) Oskar was always telling stories. Most of the time no one believed them. “Just a bunch of fairytales!” is what my father said when I told him the stories. But, I don’t know, something about this story really spooked me. I know how dark the woods get at night, especially during a storm. And these woods are thick with trees so we never really know what could be living in there. And this was the first time I’d heard the whole story. Sofie once told me that she was going through the forest to get to her grandmother’s house and she said that she had gone too far into the trees and saw a house in a clearing. It was just like the house in Oskar’s story! Something told me that I probably shouldn’t believe him, but I did anyway. (Returns to the group.)

OSKAR

(Continuing.) Go ahead then. Be fools. Luther was a boy my father went to school with. (Pauses.) Until he disappeared.

(The girls gasp.)

FRAU KLEIN

(Walks out of the school.) Come on, children. Lunch is over. Back to your lessons.

(The children slowly go back into the school begrudgingly, except Hansel and Gretel.)

HANSEL

(Laughing.) Oh, Oskar, always telling crazy stories. It’s a wonder that anyone believes him.

GRETEL

(Laughs nervously.) You know Oskar. He’s always trying to get attention.

HANSEL

Anyway, sometimes stories that we don’t believe sink into our minds and affect us.

GRETEL

(Pauses to listen.) Hang on to that thought; I think I hear Father calling us.

HOLTZMANN

(Offstage) Hansel! Gretel! Hurry home! We need to gather enough wood before the storm!

HANSEL

(Yelling back) Coming, Father!

(Hansel and Gretel run forward as the curtain closes behind them.)

GRETEL

(Still to the audience.) Our father is a woodcutter.

HANSEL

(Aside.) At least they got some of the story right!

GRETEL

He and our mother moved into our home right after they were married. We were born here. We will probably live here forever. It’s the perfect place for a woodcutter’s family.

HANSEL

We’re a happy family, though some would consider us poor.

GRETEL

We have the clothes and food we need, (annoyed) but nothing like Sofie. She has 20 dresses and 50 different bows to match and….

HANSEL

(Interrupting) But we have what we need.

GRETEL

(Coming to her senses) Yes, we do. Every day after school, we come home and go out into the forest with our father to find wood for the night’s fire.

(Curtain opens to reveal a cottage by the woods.)