Meow Meow’s The Red Shoes: A Fairytale Whirlpool Full of Surprises

Meow Meow’s The Red Shoes: A Fairytale Whirpool Full of Surprises is a review by Irina Dunn.

The very first time I saw a Meow Meow performance, it was years ago, when nothing was more surprising than when she suddenly launched herself onto the crowd – yes, she crowd-surfed – trusting they wouldn’t drop her, and trusting they would not be crushed by her admittedly small weight, even though a seven-stone hand grenade can be deadly.

She’s still out to surprise and shock in her current show at the Belvoir, Meow Meow’s The Red Shoes – her interpretation of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale.

In the program, director Kate Champion writes, “Intriguingly none of us can know for sure where its twists and turns might lead us… ” and refers to the “cauldron of creation” in which she finds herself while working with Meow Meow. As the show progresses, we the audience are left in the same whirlpool by Meow Meow, who uses the fairytale to kick off her own episodic version of the story.

The original Red Shoes is a story about a little girl who is punished for wearing the red shoes she loves so much to church. When the red shoes begin to dance without stopping, she tries to remove them and finds they are stuck to her feet. Finally she asks an executioner to cut off her feet, the red shoes with them.

Meow Meow has a lot of fun with her red shoes. Sometimes one foot is wearing an old red ballet pump, and the other foot is ensconced – sideways – in a red stiletto, on which Meow Meow stumbles about.

She’s not big on story, but uses episodes to show off her impressive vocal range, her comical timing and her physical dexterity (she can do the splits and climb the pile of junk at the corner of the stage).

Operatic tenor Kanen Breen makes an impressive appearance as Hans Christian Andersen and as the silent faun, and she is supported by a talented trio of musicians Dan Witton, Jethro Woodward and Mark Jones.