Shropshire Events and Whats On Guide

Shropshire Events and Whats On Guide

Theatre Review : The Red Shoes

Chris Eldon Lee reviews “The Red Shoes”, which is at Birmingham Hippodrome until Saturday 11th February. It will return by popular demand from the 19th to 22nd of July.

It is absolutely amazing what the human body can do…but the mind has to do it first. Matthew Bourne’s greatest gift is his inner eye. In it, he conjures up superbly comic and compassionate scenarios which have such clarity his dancers replicate them on the stage as if they are sheer conduits for his thoughts. Thus  he is able to present his vibrant and vivacious visions with such purity they remain fresh on the retina long after the standing ovation has faded away.

Afterwards, they even infiltrated my dreams. The opening image, for example, is a tragic tableaux of an innocent ballerina trapped between the red velvet tabs of a fractured proscenium…while lusciously loud music sweeps the stage. And so the curse of The Red Shoes is expressed in one moment.

It was in 1948 that the Hollywood duo Powell and Pressburger took the century- old Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale – of the red ballet shoes that refused to stop dancing – and created one of the greatest dance films of all time. Their images of the flame-haired Moira Sheerer have been in Bourne’s psyche for three decades. So his ballet about a ballet within a ballet just had to happen.

The red head is Victoria Page, danced superbly on press night by Ashley Shaw, who is infatuated by dance. The proscenium arch twirls round so we can watch events from back stage; and we see Victoria lured out of the stalls and through the footlights; intoxicated by the sheer power of her desire to dance.

In a classic movie moment, the Prima Ballerina (a raven-haired Anjali Mehra) sprains her ankle and a replacement must be found. Victoria not only passes the audition (with a free-flowing ethereal solo which cleverly contrasts with the courtly hopping going on all around her) she also falls in love with the composer (Chris Trenfield). So, that’s two Hollywood clichés then. But it was 1948, remember.

The trouble is the Company Impresario (haughtily danced by Sam Archer) loves her too and regards her affair as an impediment to greatness. He tempts her away with the compulsive red shoes and, with acute symbolism, physically places her in a solo spotlight.

And so, the famous story they are presenting on stage begins to be replicated back stage, which gives Bourne fabulous scope. The 17-minute play within the play is a stark black and white affair; with angular motion, shadow scenery and a fearful storm; which contrasts beautifully, for example, with the brightly swim-suited company lounging around on a South of France beach. This is ballet with beach balls; with the sea’s horizon echoed in the horizontal lines of their post-war costumes. At one point the dancers all flow together to create a wave you could almost surf on.

Later, spurned and down and out, Victoria winds up in a London vaudeville show which features a Wilson and Keppel Egyptian sand dance that is both hilarious and sinister. I never knew dancers kept their fags in their jock straps; but no fresh young girl is secure in their company.

It’s such a busy ballet, you really have to keep your eyes peeled. Bourne delights in visual one liners (a dancer is doing the splits, which an administrator is obliged to step over) and moments of magic. Victoria acquires the shoes by clever sleight of hand and her attempts to free herself of them are heart churningly desperate.

The music is terrific throughout; drawn not from the movie but largely from the less famous repertoire of film-score composer Bernard Herrmann. It’s stirringly impressive, but still not beyond a joke or two. Whenever an off-stage piano is heard, someone leaps to the on-stage baby grand to mime to it.

The film makers reckoned the message of The Red Shoes was that ‘art was worth dying for’. Matthew Bourne production is so wonderful, he might just be proving them right. It is quite simply the experience of a life time.

Visit www.birminghamhippodrome.com for bookings & more information