ThinIce's The Red Shoes - Perth

I was fortunate enough to be given preview tickets to ThinIce's production of The Red Shoes, running at PICA during the Artrage festival. I have never met any of the company and apart from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale (which I mistakenly had attributed to the Brothers Grimm), I was unfamiliar with the storyline. That said, I was blown away this adaptation in terms of story, production and performance. The story is a melange of 3 Andersen tales, The Red Shoes, The Ice Maiden, and The Shadow, deftly blended together by Humphrey Bower through dramatisation and traditional storytelling methods. Composer Ash Gibson Greig created a score and songs that alternate between balladeering, blues and cabaret. It seemed to me that the singing was meant to be evocative and not necessarily beautiful, although the funeral song was a touching and lovely moment in itself. All songs were used to great effect to draw the audience futher into the story. The staging of the production was extremely effective, with evocative use of lights and sound - more about this later. Claude Marcos' minimalist white set provided flexibility for the actors who are onstage for the entire performance. I must also mention that the white piano at centre stage seemed to have not only a myriad of uses throughout the show, but in fact a character of its own at times. The acting throughout was committed and compelling throughout. Between them, Igor Sas and George Shevtsov played thirteen roles, with clear disctinctions between each. Igor Sas portrayed characters ranging from an indifferent funeral celebrant to a puritanical spinster aunt, to the demanding yet unattainable Ice Maiden. He was at turns, coy, sexy and distant, and provided most of the comic moments that helped ease the tension of the play where necessary. Shevtsov's roles were equally varied and fully fleshed;the most engaging of these being for me the Dad and the Shadow. As the Dad, Shevtsov enthralled as a silent observer at his own funeral, while the Shadow's descriptive storytelling drew me further and further down the rabbit hole with him (just to introduce another children's story). By comparison, Brendan Ewing as Kevin had only one role to play - but the breadth of the role was immense and he carried it off faultlessly. Ewing dissects the Kevin's journey from the innocence and vulnerability of his newly-orphaned youth through to his inevitable descent into obsessed madness, and lays out every emotion for us to observe. These powerful performances were enhanced throughout by the well-thought-out lighting and sound design, by Matthew Marshall and Kingsley Reeve, respectively. The shadow projection from behind the piano was especially effective, although there seemed to have been one miscue on the preview night that I attended. The flash and sounds of flames each time the crematatorium hatch opened, the ever-present television flicker and the dancing sequence towards the end were also very effective. This is quite a graphic production, with much blood and also nudity, which I had not seen mentioned in any promotional material. The graphic portrayal was in keeping with the story and did not bother or offend me, however it could come as an unwelcome surprise to some audience members. The last point I would like to make about this fascinating produation is that I was most impressed that the program included the full script of the play. Not bad for $8.00, and a great way to promote both the company and Humphrey Bower as a playwright. Overall it was a great preview performance of a very powerful play, and I wish all the company a most successful season.