What's On: Festival Special

Hansel and Gretel
Greenwich Park

If you want a walk around Greenwich Park with a difference try this fairy tale recreation on for size.

Press play on the specially provided mp3 player, look out for the witch and try not to get lost as you follow the Hansel And Gretel trail on this surreal  audio and performance tour of the park.

Created by Metro Boulot Dodo and featuring a musical score, voiceovers, props and performances, Hansel And Gretel, we are promised, will be both a comic, and at times scary, recreation of the Grimm Brothers' classic tale. Demand is likely to be high so visitors are encouraged to book at St Mary's Gate 30 minutes before performances.

June 27-28, various times, Free, festival.org, DLR: Cutty Sark

Water Music
National Maritime Museum

Handel composed his Water Music 250 years ago, and to mark the anniversary of the first performance, it will be brought back to life with light and sound in the grounds of the National Maritime Museum.

This night-time performance will make use of river and the historic buildings at the venue as a canvas for projections.

Handel's creation will be a refreshed using an electro-acoustic, brass and spoken word formula.

As a multimedia performance it aims to appeal to all rather than only to lovers of Handel. And with only 25 minutes of music and free entry it should be bearable for even the least enthusiastic audience member.

June 25-37, 10pm, Free, DLR Cutty Sark

Fous de Bassin
Millwall Outer Dock

This feat of underwater stagecraft should create a head-turning treat for festival goers.
With a backdrop of fireworks and music, you can expect to see all sorts of strange things rising from the dark depths of the dock.

Watch cars and caravans float past as if they were driving on the surface not to mention performers walking on water, all operating under the guidance of an aquatic queen riding a five-metre-high penny farthing on the waves.

Fous De Bassin, which translates as water fools, lasts for half an hour and the French theatre company Ilotopie says it wants to play on our obsession with water and its deep dark mysteries.

June 25-26, 10pm, Free, DLR: Crossharbour

Pi L'eau
Woolwich Town Centre

This bills itself as a theatrical fairy tale with post-apocalyptic visions portraying a futuristic world covered by the sea.

Past audiences have talked about standing in empty squares, bemused by the lack of a stage or performers in sight. Then suddenly out of the side streets the staging appears and is rushed into the crowd.

Pi L'eau is at its most basic level an exploration of climate change. What will happen when the ice melts, sea levels rise, and the world is covered in water?

To answer this question audiences can expect stilt walkers, dancers, acrobats, musicians, actors and a plentiful amount of pyrotechnics.

June 27, 9.30pm, Free, DLR: Woolwich Arsenal