Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale about a girl who dances herself to death inspired the iconic Powell and Pressburger film The Red Shoes and recently resulted in a superb adult retelling by Kneehigh Theatre. Now the Unicorn Theatre has come up with a contemporary dance/theatre version of the story that matches those two previous efforts step for step.
It's immediately clear that this is a piece of theatre for young people (it's aimed at the over-nines) that breaks all the moulds. The stage is surrounded by piles of old boots, an image that simultaneously conjures the abandonment of a way of thinking, the tramp of refugee feet and even the Holocaust.
Franvera lives only to dance. In the red shoes given to her by her parents she dances towards tomorrow, oblivious to the sound of thunder around her. But her life is changing in tiny ways: her best friend is forbidden to talk to her, neighbour turns on neighbour and soon people begin fleeing her village. Then soldiers move in and round up all the men. Franvera's father looks as if he might escape until Franvera is tricked into betraying him. Abandoned by her mother (who, in a sharp psychological twist, returns to look for her husband), Franvera sets out to walk over the mountains to the refugee camp. She is accompanied by Red Beard, an old soldier who tells her that she must "learn to hate".
Sadly such tales are the stuff of daily newspapers, but Charles Way's script and Tony Graham's production make the material seem unfamiliar. The play has a genuine mythic quality as fairy tale and reality crunch on each other.
The production blurs the boundaries of the spoken word and the physical, creating its own distinct language full of emotional nuance. And it embraces all the ambiguities of the original story, not least in its bloody image of Franvera dancing to break the circle of hate. This is a rare and mature piece of children's theatre in both thought and form, and it satisfies on every level.
Until October 6. Box office: 020-7387 0031.
