Matthew Bourne puts his Red Shoes on again
- Robert Beale
- 3 minutes ago
- 3 min read
The Red Shoes – the 1948 film starring Moira Shearer – was made into a new ballet by Matthew Bourne in 2016. Now it’s back, and at Salford’s Lowry theatre later this month.
The double Olivier award-winning version of the legendary Powell and Pressburger film featured music by Hollywood composer Bernard Herrmann (with a bit by an uncredited contributor called Chopin) and designs by Lez Brotherston. Sir Matthew has announced: “I’m thrilled that 11 of the original cast are returning, performing the roles they created, possibly for the last time. I’m so happy to see it return this year - especially as our last tour in 2020 was cut short by the pandemic.”
We asked him how the idea for turning a film about ballet into an actual ballet came about.
What is it about “The Red Shoes” that attracted you as a story to adapt for dance? “Well, I've loved the film since I was a teenager; it seemed to be saying art was something worth fighting for, even dying for, if the rather melodramatic conclusion is to be believed! It was a world full of glamour, romance and creativity, populated by larger-than-life personalities.”
How does it speak to the audience of today? “In recent years the most popular shows on television have been about finding someone with star quality (The X Factor), or watching someone acquire the skills to become a great dancer (Strictly Come Dancing). Star quality is an indefinable thing, but we seem fascinated by it. The Red Shoes gives us a similar glimpse into the art form of dance, a revealing backstage story.”
What are the differences between a dance company in 1948 and today? “I did see a similarity between the life of a hard-working touring company, full of slightly eccentric personalities. and the world of New Adventures today. The family atmosphere of New Adventures, which tours around the world as a tight knit community, seemed the right company to recreate the fictional Lermontov company of yesteryear.”
How have New Adventures dancers approached playing these characters? “Who can imagine The Red Shoes without Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann, Leonide Massine and, perhaps most of all, Anton Walbrook? I think the New Adventures dancers, whether they knew the film before or not, have all fallen in love with these unique performers. Our task was to honour them with the odd little tribute, but then to create our own characters, dictated by the story we are telling.
Do you relate personally to any of the characters in the story? “Perhaps not surprisingly I have found myself agreeing with much of what ballet master Lermontov says in the movie. I'm nothing like him, of course, but I do understand his particular kind of love for Vicky and his love of his company and dance in general. Nothing else seems as important to him. As I get older, I recognise that sentiment more and more.”
The Red Shoes is at the Lowry, Salford from November 25-29, ahead of a Christmas season in London. The show will tour in 2026, visiting Liverpool Empire (February 24-28); Bradford Alhambra (April 21-25) and Newcastle Theatre Royal (April 28-May 9).
More info here
+++While we're on the subject, New Adventures will be back at the Lowry in June (23-27) next summer with Bourne's award-winning dance thriller The Car Man. Tickets for the run go on general sale on November 21, a day earlier for Lowry members.
The show will also tour to Hull New Theatre (June 30-July 4), Sheffield Lyceum (July 21-25), Newcastle Theatre Royal (September 8-12) and Bradford Alhambra (October 20-24).
Loosely based on Bizet’s opera Carmen, Bourne's version turns the opera's 19th Century Spanish cigarette factory into a greasy 1950s garage-diner in the American Mid-West, where the dreams and passions of a small-town are shattered by the arrival of a handsome and enigmatic stranger...
More info here