Story: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson
Music: Bernard Herrmann
Director and choreographer: Matthew Bourne
Matthew Bourne has taken Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1948, Technicolor masterpiece of British cinema, The Red Shoes and turned it into not only a fully fledged ballet but a triumphant feast for the eyes.
Along with struggling composer Julian Craster (Leonardo McCorkindale), aspiring dance star Victoria Page’s (Hannah Kremer) quiet determination takes her from the chorus line to centre stage when she impresses the Diaghilev-like ballet impresario Boris Lermontov (Reece Causton). However, it soon becomes a case of be careful what you wish for when she has to choose between love and her obsession for dance.
As ever in New Adventures work, this stage production is gloriously cinematic and replete with not only knife-edge drama but humour and tiny detail that evokes the era perfectly (the cigarettes dangling from the dancers’ mouths, the principal dancers miming their way through rehearsals, the sand dancers, muscle men and chorus girls are all particularly on point).
Lez Brotherston’s immaculate set design is a triumph, enhanced by Paule Constable’s atmospheric lighting, taking the action seamlessly from the elegant salons of London, to front and back stage of the ballet, the streets of Monte Carlo to a run-down East End music hall. The moving proscenium arch design is a fantastic feat of design invention and imagination, pirouetting across the stage sweeping the action along at speed.
Terry Davies’ orchestrations of the work of the legendary Bernard Herrman (taken from The Ghost and Mrs Muir and Citizen Kane) are faultless and lend the piece the suspense it requires. There’s also clever work from Paul Groothuis, whose sound design amps up the atmosphere.
The dancers are, as ever, universally outstanding, Kremer is fully channelling Moira Shearer and the choreography is detailed and utterly absorbing. There’s little more you can say save that this is an outstanding piece of dance theatre – a sumptuous visual feast that merits watching again and again.
Runs until 31 January 2026 | Image: Johan Persson
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