Iduna and her Golden Apples (Class 4 Play)

Wed June 29, 2022

Class 4 pupils will perform their play, ‘Iduna and her Golden Apples’ –  a play with actors and birds, in two performances: 12.20pm to the School and a second performance to parents, extended family and the wider public will be at 5.30pm. (Please allow 30 – 40 minutes running time).

Loki has promised to steal some of these for the frost giant, Thiassi.  The problem is that the guardian of the apples, gentle Iduna, never leaves her garden.  He tempts Iduna from the garden, and she is captured by the frost giant.  On her iceberg prison, she will not give the giant the apples, and the giant cannot take them herself.

Back in Asgard, Loki’s part in the plot is revealed to Odin. Loki is charged to make amends, by donning his falcon suit and flying over the cold icy ocean to Iduna, with a plan to rescue her by turning her into a swallow.  But the plot is revealed, and Thiassi pursues them as a giant eagle.  Can the falcon and swallow make it back to Asgard before the eagle catches them…

Every year, there is a time when each Class from Kindergarten to Class 12 stops the regular routine of the day (mainly the morning Main Lesson blocks in the school) and immerses in preparation for a Class Play. A lot of times the roles are specifically picked to empower the children in the class. Sometimes it’s the least expected person that you can imagine who would be in a lead role in the play. For pupils who go through the whole fifteen years, they get a chance to be in a variety of roles over this time.

Routine and rhythm are important for our Main Lesson Programme and for the children to know how their days flow. When it comes time for the Class Play, that routine stops and gives way for several weeks (sometimes months) to have the entire class pool their talents to work on this artistic project for part of each day.

Pupils work on and perform pieces that range from fairy stories and myths to Oscar Wilde and Shakespeare, in several modern languages. It is an essential part of Waldorf education that we call pedagogical drama because the plays specifically relate to the content of the Waldorf curriculum through the years. The legends of Norse Mythology provide the main story content in Class 4. (See Lower School Curriculum).

This play involves the Norse gods and is based on the story of the theft of Iduna’s apples.  Iduna is the goddess of eternal youth and gives out the golden apples in her basket to the other gods, to keep them young. After some mischief from Loki and being spirited away from Asgard, the two black ravens Hugin and Munin find her and she is able to be rescued.