The British Red Shoe to be displayed in Damascus, Aleppo
Syria-UK, Local, 10/16/2002

Under the Patronage of the Syrian minister of culture Najwa Kassab Hassan, and The British Council in Damascus, the British "THE RED SHOES" by Kneehigh Theatre Company will be performed in Damascus and Aleppo.

Adapted from Hans Christian Anderson and directed by Emma Rice, Cornwall's Kneehigh Theatre's production of The Red Shoes is passionate, irreverent and rude, like a gust of salty sea air, a weather beaten force to be reckoned with. "I opened my mouth : I want to direct 'The Red Shoes' I said. I will still swear to the fact that, at that point, I had never read or heard the story, seen the ballet or the film." Says Emma Rice describing her "obsession" with the story. "I saw myself in the girl, dancing, dancing. I even envied her plight. What is life if you can't dance its dance, spin uncontrollably through its delights and disappointments? The story spoke to me of passions sated and fruits devoured, chances taken and reason ignored."

Rice's girl can't resist her red shoes. They make her dance with delight, spin with possibilities. But what happens when she can't stop dancing? She dances past love, life and death and at last turns to the butcher to rid her of her heart-stoppingly beautiful red shoes. "The girl in the story is punished in all the versions I have read. I cannot inflict that fate on my heroine or on myself. Haunted by my own red shoes, I offer myself, and you, another way. A way rich with possibilities and hope, heady with dance and calm with stillness." Rice has worked 'her way' through the story with a team that makes theatre "with a bold spirit" and considers its' making a privilege not a right." Based in Cornwall, Kneehigh Theatre Company is committed to making theatre for the world stage. This captivating 'Red Shoes' show has already enjoyed a successful UK tour, taken London by storm at the British Festival of Visual Theatre, and sold out in Beijing and Shanghai. The Red Shoes is set to become a cult classic.

It will be shown in Damascus on 24 and 25 October and Aleppo on 22 October.

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