REVIEW: THE RED SHOES @ THEATRE ROYAL PLYMOUTH

🎭 The Red Shoes

📍  The Lyric, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Royal Parade, Plymouth, Devon, PL1 2TR

🗓 Tuesday 18th November 2025

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

TRIUMPHANT, OPULENT AND INTRICATE

This opulent, gorgeous ballet whisks its audience between the London and the South of France of the late 1940’s. A triumphant reimagining of Hans Andersen’s classic fairy tale and the legendary Powell & Pressburger film, Matthew Bourne’s Midas touch does not let us down. 

The show begins with a mesmeric, slightly sinister, man appearing on stage, he raises a baton. As the music begins the heavy velvet stage curtains part a little, to reveal a beautiful ballerina, the spotlight falling on her glowing red ballet shoes. Small gasps of delight and intrigue come from the audience. In that moment the magic is created that pulls us into this lavish, intricately woven tale. 

As with almost any of Director and Choreographer, Matthew Bourne’s ballets, THE RED SHOES is packed characters that charm, amuse and repel with so many “asides” you would need to see the show several times to catch them all. It is a wry, loving tribute to the days of autocratic ballet masters, hopeful ingenues, tired company members and the inflated egos of the Prima Ballerinas. All these characters drawn brilliantly by Bourne’s choreography as they step over one another to bring themselves to the attention of Impresario of the Ballet, Lermontov himself. Boris Lermontov seems boredly immune to these overtures until he encounters rising star, Victoria Page and becomes tortured by obsession. 

Ashley Shaw is exquisite as she revives her role as Victoria. She is compelling to watch as she faultlessly moves between her lover, the struggling composer Julian Craster, Leonardo McCorkindale and Lermontov, Reece Causton, who offers her greatest desire encapsulated in the form of the eponymous shoes with the conflict writ clear in her body language. We watch her tire and struggle with breaking hearts. 

It was thrilling to see dazzling performances by Liam Mower as the Prima ballerina. He lit up the stage not only with his dancing but his characterisation. Michela Meazza shone as Irina and Glen Graham was perfection as the Ballet Master, just the right amount of sleaze! The entire company were amazing, on stage most of the time with lightening costume changes in between. 

Whilst this is an intense and tragic tale, there is much light relief to be found which give us a breathing space. The scenes at Monte Carlo and Villefranche-sur-Mer are an uninhibited delight, full of warmth and sunshine. It will also take me a while to stop laughing at the unforgettable Sand Dance sequence when Victoria and Julian return to the London Variety stage.  

Les Brotherston’s sumptuous costumes and incredible sets are integral to the whole ballet. The rotating stage curtains should have their own star billing as they flip the narrative to backstage and proscenium stage. The evocative Hitchcock style monochrome and projection used for the inserted Ballet of the Red Shoes is ingenious and everything marries beautifully with the incredible score by Bernard Herrman fixing the era perfectly and accentuating the ballet’s intensity. 

This ballet is a riot of emotions, funny, tumultuous and tragic. It also seemed to me to be a hymn to the art of Dance itself and those who dedicate their lives to it. Stunning and engaging to the very last steps.   

THE RED SHOES continues performances at Theatre Royal Plymouth until Saturday 22nd Novemer. Click here for tickets.

Rosie Sharman-Ward

All views are my own and I pride myself on being honest, fair and free from influence. Theatre is subjective and it is important to remember that all views expressed are just those of one person.

My ticket for this performance of The Red Shoes was gifted by Theatre Royal Plymouth who invited me to watch the show on behalf of Pink Prince Theatre in exchange for my honest review. The fact that my ticket was gifted played no part in the content of my review or the star rating given.

CAST LIST:

Reece Causton as Boris Lermontov; Ashley Shaw as Victoria Page; Leonardo McCorkindale as Julien Craster; Michela Meazza as Irina Boronskaya; Liam Mower as Ivan Boleslawsky; Glen Graham as Grischa Ljubov; Holly Saw as Nadia; Anna-Maria de Freitas as Svetlana; Shakiera Ward as Beryl; Isabella Chandler as Pamela; Jarrod McWilliams as Mikhail; Matthew Potulski as Anton; Kingston Taylor as Serge; Tom Barnes Standing as Frederic; Kayla Collymore as Lady Neston / Joyce / Edith; Mark Austin as Sergei Ratov; Adam Davies as Dimitri

RUNNING TIME (approx):

1 hour 55 minutes, including interval

AGE GUIDELINE:

7 +

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