Except from HANSEL & GRETL & HEIDI & GÜNTER Book by Hannah Kohl, Music by Will Aronson, Lyrics by Daniel Maté Lincoln Park, Chicago. HEIDI, 12, and GÜNTER, 9, long for a normal childhood. Instead, they live inside the tight parameters laid out by their mother GRETL who wears a Medieval smock and kirtle, stuffs their pockets full of pebbles, and lives by the credo, “No sugar, no strangers, no questions.” As the first day of school opens in disaster, HEIDI rebels, convincing GÜNTER the only to escape their fate is to get someone to kidnap them. (“Dear Random Stranger”) They’ve launched a series of SOS messages hidden in dumplings off their stoop and into the street, hoping someone will respond. A STRANGER enters. He has a Continental flair, wears leather pants, has a feather in his hat, and is headed right for them. GRETL comes running out of the house, wielding a rolling pin. GRETL Heidi! Günter! Get away from that stranger! (to the STRANGER) Leave my children alone! JAAAAA! GRETL charges. HEIDI and GÜNTER watch as GRETL and the STRANGER move from fighting and deflecting into a synchronized series of movements that coalesce into a quaint German folk dance. The dance slows, then stops. HANSEL & GRETL stare at one another. GRETL Is it you?! STRANGER Is it you?! GRETL I am me. Are you YOU?! STRANGER I remind you of me! GRETL Ach! No! Impossible! My brother is dead! STRANGER Your brother’s alive! Dancing with you on the corner of Lincoln and Leland in the great American city of Chicago! Gretel! It’s Hansel! I’ve finally found you! GRETL faints. HANSEL catches her. STRANGER / HANSEL Move aside, Kinderlein. Your Uncle Hansel will take care of everything.
Hansel & Gretl & Heidi & Günter (excerpt) by Hannah Kohl
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