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The Red Shoes. |
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Emma Rice's adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson's macabre fairytale, 'The Red Shoes' is the one about the girl who is given a pair or luscious red shoes, which eventually lead her to her death through dancing, and that dancing represents. The play consists of six actors, one female and five males. The story is played out by the 'chorus', five of the actors, who are in turn different characters from the fairytale, as opposed to having a set character each. These five are led by a mythical cabaret MC figure and dream-weaver, a flamboyant drag queen, and almost as if they are chess pieces, or very willing puppets, chosen and moved around by her. She watches on, as we do, as they tell the story. The performance began with the house lights still up and the grubby-vested, underpant-clad troupe of five (the chorus) climbing onto the stage and washing their feet in tin baths, drying them off and putting on matching pairs of heavy black shoes. At that point, the MC arrives, the house lights go down and the show begins. The dances were mesmerizing, and reminded us of the darker more magical meaning behind the story, as did the music. There were lots of tricks that seemed quite superfluous to the action, but added to the colour of the performance as a whole. This was a delightful mixture of what you would look for in a film by Baz Lurhman (Strictly Ballroom, Romeo and Juliet, Moulin Rouge) and if you were going to see some contemporary dance. In short, it is very funny and mad at the same time as being quite serious and beautiful. Pip
Johnson. 5/11/01
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