Stream: The Red Shoes
Immaculate filming by Ross MacGibbon brought this two-time Olivier award winning production to our TV screens on Christmas Day. The Ballet premiered in 2016 and I was lucky enough catch it at Sadler’s Wells. I shook with emotion at the genius finale of the first half where the protagonist Victoria Page triumphs in Monte Carlo. The designer Les Brotherston, with sound by Paul Gruthuis and lighting by Paule Constable, stages this moment from the backstage view, using programmed applause to complement the house audience response. A truly thrilling moment. Incidentally, this device was used in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Love Never Dies’. Oh boy this really works! Based broadly on the cult film by Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell this amazing production fulfils even the most ardent fan’s love of the story. I can remember being entranced by Moira Shearer in the original film and excited by watching a rare foray into film by Leonide Massine and Robert Helpmann. A dancer treats. Imagine the delight at hearing that Mathew Bourne was to turn it into a full-length ballet.
The story is of a young dancer forced to choose between her love of her art and her lover. It is a classic macabre story based on the tale by Hans Christian Anderson. The red shoes offered to her by ballet master Ljubov entice her to dance and once on she can never cease. She becomes a star of the Ballet Company Lermantov but leaves to follow her lover, a struggling composer, to London finding herself part of a tawdry Music Hall show. She returns to Monte Carlo and dies throwing herself under a train still wearing her red shoes.
This production by a master storyteller is his finest work I believe. Ashley Shaw reprises the title role of Victoria Page and brings both charm and tragedy. She is never offstage which is a technical feat. World famous dancer Adam Cooper dances the iconic role of Svengali-like impresario Boris Lermantov. He dominates every scene which only a performer of his class can do. There is a beautiful, nuanced performance by Dominic North as the struggling composer Julian Craster with whom she falls in love and this is all complimented by Michela Meazza as the Prima Ballerina of Ballet Lermontov Irina Boronskaya and Liam Mower as a camp Premier Danseur Ivan Boleslawsky. The rehearsal scenes are a joy, and the recreation of the choreographic style of Ballet Russe and Monte Carlo danced to the music of Charles Gerhart’s ‘Hangover Square’ is just wonderful. The dancers also have fun recreating the famous sand dance routines by Wilson Keppel and Betty. The company revel in the opportunity to dance this historic dance history. Elsewhere the score returns to the lush Hollywood style of Bernard Herman. The beautiful revolving proscenium arch really is the star of the piece, placing the audience in the era and enhancing this strange tale of art and obsession. A brilliant reimagining of a cult classic choreographed with impeccable style and passion.
Available on iPlayer.
