27 HANSY AND GRITTY (4)

Kang Sola continued the narration, "The boy and the girl… Can anyone guess?" She turned to the crowd for audience participation. The children from the audience answered her, "They got lost!!!"

One of the students shouted a spoiler, "Now they will find the bread and house in the middle of the forest!!!"

Several children giggled and squeaked thinking that they knew what would happen next.

Kang Sola grinned and exchanged excited looks with Xue Guangxi.

She continued, "Hensel and Gretel stopped on their tracks. They no longer followed the yellow butterfly because… Because!!!!"

"Their eyes bulged and their mouths watered upon seeing a house made up of bread and candies and pastries."

"Its amorous smell wafted in the air. Their stomachs growled and demanded to taste those treats!!!"

Puppet Hansel and puppet Gretel acted out the narration, and the controllers, Xiao Lihua and Xiao Lingtian made them funnily touch their bellies. The children laughed.

Puppet Hansel and puppet Gretel gave in to their hunger and ate the flower candies and the house's bread bricks, and the doorknob made of warm butter bread. They reached out at the shingles' lanterns which were made of apple candies.

The artistry of the bread house was superb. Xue Guangxi gawked at how brilliant and perfect it was crafted and imagined how Kang Sola would have achieved all this in a short period.

Then, Kang Sola nudged Xue Guangxi who was supposed to enter and play as the villain. "Hihihihi!!!!" A spooky evil old gruff half-growl, half-laughter reverberated in the air before the actual puppet emerged on the stage. The owner of the voice was a giant gray bad wolf.

The background music and lighting changed into purplish magenta accordingly. The smoke machine was operated, and the stage suddenly shifted into something dark.

"Who said you could eat out of my house? You, children, should be punished! Because you ate my house, now, it's my turn to eat you two!!! Yum!!! Yum!!! " Said the wolf while baring the teeth.

Again, the effects were superfluous. The lighting changed such that it allowed the shadow of the wolf's teeth to be projected as large as it could on the backdrop that now was shifted to off-white, from the black fabric before.

"No one's going to help you here!!!" The big bad wolf mocked and laughed at them!!! "I was expecting another naughty child, but who knew two extras will arrive today!!! It will be a feast!!! Nyahahaha!!!" Xue Guangxi bellowed frightfully.

A little girl in the back started to cry.

Kang Sola shot Xue Guangxi a warning glance. "Oops, sorry!!! Don't cry, little girl!!!" Xue Guangxi used the puppet wolf and its voice and made an adlib. He made the wolf dance.

"Anyway!! Where were we?" The wolf resumed its soliloquy and turned into the two children who were already trying to take several steps backward, ready to flee on the stage.

"Oh no, Hansel, the door won't open! It has no doorknob!" Chen Lihua exclaimed.

"Oh no, Gretel, it's because we ate the doorknob earlier!!!" Chen Lingtian responded. Both their puppets trembled and panicked as both puppets put their hands on their heads.

The wolf finally recalled, "Ahh, yes!!! I'm going to eat you two!!! I should preheat the oven first!!!"

When the wolf turned its back, a little girl's voice called the twins, "Pst, pst, here!!! This way!!!"

Dropping the role of the narrator, Kang Sola played another role as a little girl. She modulated her voice befitting the role. A puppet of the little girl in red cloak appeared hunched forward by the wall of the bread house. The wall noticeably had a hole in it.

Then, Kang Sola shifted to the narrator again, "The little girl in red cloak ate the bread wall bricks and created a hole in the wall!!!"

She continued while the puppets did the action on stage, "Hansel and Gretel escaped through the hole, then followed the girl in a red cloak until they reached the clearing in the woods."

"You must be lost!! The wolf lured kids who are lost into the edible house. It's a trap!!!" Little Red Riding Hood told them.

"How come you know all about it?" Gretel asked.

"My grandmother lives on the other side of the forest by the brooks. I got lost on my way there once and ended up here, too! Thank goodness a certain kind woodcutter helped me before!"

"But we should run or the wolf will catch us!" Hansel pondered, ready to run again.

"No, the wolf is not allowed to set foot in this part of the forest. If he does, the men from the village will hunt him down. That was the agreement when they allowed him to live in the forest. That's why he can only lure children into his den!"

Soon, the woodcutter father found his twin children in the clearing.

Little Red Riding Hood gasped in delighted surprise. "Ha!!! You're the man who saved me before, Sir!! Are they your children?"

"Indeed, they are!" Xue Guangxi played the woodcutter father again.

"Hansel and Gretel told their father that the little girl in red cloak saved them and all three of them thanked her." Said the narrator, Kang Sola.

"No, you saved me before!!! Little did I know that I would be able to return the favor to your children, Sir!!!" Then Kang Sola shifted into Red Riding Hood Again. It must be confusing, but the lady did well.

The woodcutter and the twins went with the girl and visited her grandmother at the end of the forest. The old woman had heard the tales of that afternoon's adventures while they were all gathered for a session of tea.

"Then, the three children went home together with the woodcutter. The two girls and the boy held each other's hands on their way home while chatting their life away."

"Afterwards, Hansel and Gretel, and Little Red Riding Hood played together day by day, and the twins no longer got bored nor curious when their father left them for work. All three of them became good friends for life with a friendship forged in trust and loyalty." With that, Kang Sola ended the story. The stage's lights faded into darkness, and the curtains at the sides of the stage closed.

Their audience applauded and cheered and clapped.

Chen Lihua nad Chen Lingtian appeared from the backstage and bowed into the audience. Kang Sola and Xue Guangxi stood up from being seated uncomfortably at the back and also did a bow in front of the crowd.