World-renowned theatrical creator Meow Meow is back on stage with a dazzling fairy tale rendition of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Red Shoes.
Having already stunned audiences with performances of Andersen’s other classics- Little Match Girl and Little Mermaid– Meow Meow’s latest creation aims to remind us all of the joys of dance, and ultimately, life itself.
The show is set to be performed at the Belvoir St Theatre from the 4th of October to the 9th of November. It’s co-produced alongside Black Swan State Theatre Company and Malthouse Theatre.
“I hope people can come away feeling that they can hold each other. I’m using dance as a metaphor, really, for being connected,” Meow Meow tells Women’s Agenda.
The morality tale of The Red Shoes follows a young orphan girl who dares to wear red shoes to the Church and is punished with a curse that sees her unable to stop dancing.
Digging deeper into the story’s meaning, Meow Meow asks: What if she could never start dancing at all? Can we save her? Can we save the world?
“I find his writing kind of confounding, actually, because it doesn’t have the opulence of, say, Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales,” she says. “There’s morality tales and a kind of everydayness about them.”
“There’s magic sometimes, and they’re quite brutal. So, quite often, what I’ve been trying to do is use the fairy tale as a springboard for an examination of how the message comes into being.”
This examination, she says, is done through “hilarity, and hopefully some poignancy and a bit of healing in the process”.
As a great lover of dance, Meow Meow says The Red Shoes has always intrigued her for its take on the historical trend of stories where the protagonists dance themselves to death.
“I’m interested in the broader resonances of addiction and consumerism, and asking where the fine line is when it comes to dancing.”
“Is what you’re doing a beautiful, freeing thing? And then when are you dancing off the abyss? When is it too much?”
The Australian-born actress, dancer and cabaret performer says she’s grateful to have been touring all around the world, but there’s a special feeling getting to come back to Australia and throw herself into this performance with her fellow creators of the show.
“I have never worked with Kate Champion before, who’s my director on this show,” Meow Meow says, adding that she’s found the collaboration to be “beautiful”.
“She’s amazing. I think we’re two really strong women who feel like we should be working together forever. It’s just beautiful. It’s a beautiful combination.”
Known for her ‘kamikaze cabaret’ and unique theatrical style, Meow Meow throws her all into performances, both on-stage and behind-the-scenes.
For The Red Shoes, in particular, she has spent years researching the story, in all its fascinating intricacies.
“I went to Copenhagen and then to where Hans Christian Anderson was born and met with the head of the Hans Christian Andersen Prize Foundation and the head of the museum,” Meow Meow says.
“I do masses and masses of research, and it might just end up being one line or a tiny little leitmotif of music that comes through,” she says, adding that this is part of the beauty of the creative process, where the final product comes from “eclectic strains of research”.
When audiences come to see The Red Shoes, Meow Meow hopes they can gain a sense of how much work has gone into the show and come away from it feeling “there is still beauty in the world”.
Amid the chaos, she wants people to remember why they “wanted to dance”, with ‘dancing’ being a broader symbol of “being connected with humanity”.
“That’s when we can hold hands,and not feel that we’re isolated. It’s about opening eyes and [keeping your] arms out.”
Meow Meow will perform ‘The Red Shoes’ at the Belvoir St Theatre from the 4th of October to the 9th of November. Get tickets here.