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Tales of the Grimm Brothers

March 14, 2013 - March 16, 2013

8:00 PM

Johnson Theatre, Lenfest Hall

Contact: Professor Roger Crockett

Generalprobe, the German language theater group at Washington and Lee, will perform Märchenwald, four dramatized tales of the Grimm Brothers.

The public is invited. The performance is in German with detailed synopses of all four tales in the program. Admission is free.

Hans im Glück (Lucky Hans) is a lighthearted comedy about a simple-minded, optimistic soul, gullible but undaunted. Hans is cheated out of all his possessions, but chooses to regard them as a burden, which he has happily cast off.

Das Mädchen ohne Hände (The Girl without Hands) is a dark story about a father’s weakness and a daughter’s inexhaustible strength and faith. The devil deceives the father into selling him his daughter’s soul, but the devil never reckons with the girl’s piety and resilience or with the timely intervention of her guardian angel.

Der Krautesel (Donkey Cabbages) is a tale of love, revenge and magical transformations. A hunter comes into possession of two talismans coveted by a witch. The witch uses her beautiful daughter as bait to secure them. But is the daughter really faithful to her mother? And what happens when they are both turned into donkeys by the vengeful hunter?

Rumpelstilzchen, the best known of the tales, is the most enigmatic. Who is this little man who can spin straw into gold, for whom something living is more important than all the gold in the kingdom? And why is his power, indeed his very existence, dependent upon no one knowing his name?