Everyone loves shoes. Women love shoes, men love shoes, children love shoes. Consequently, a show all about shoes is a masterpiece of an idea. The production itself, isn't quite a masterpiece, however it is a good high-school production from the students of Elmwood School, Ottawa, Canada. It is a combination of monologue, ensemble, dance and music, which brings to life the poetry, prose and song of a number of writers, in addition to their own original work. Collective Theatre is apparently ‘quintessentially Canadian’ and most of the writers showcased are Canadian, though some pieces work better than others.
The cast trace the history of shoes from the early ages to the modern day. It is an emporium of fascinating facts and figures, cleverly illustrated with dresses formed from the bodies of the cast themselves. It was informative and quizzical - do you know why the Church loved Chopine platform shoes, or where the stiletto comes from? The strongest visual piece was one about old shoes. The stage lights picked out the ropes to quite dramatic effect.
The ultimate shoe story, that of Cinderella, is given the original Perrault and Grimm treatment, complete with hacked off toes and pecked out eyes. Some of the pieces fall a little flat, like a sketch show where sometimes it just doesn’t work. Either this was because it was not visual enough, or because the stories were too dry for the stage. Despite the continual reference to shoes, a weakness of the show is the lack of them. Indeed, the cast wears the same pair of sneakers almost entirely throughout. The huge baseball boots are a great idea, but it would be good to see more varied footwear.
The strongest piece in the performance is the finale. Here, there are lots of shoes, all skillfully adapted to become percussion instruments. Together they produce a catchy, acoustic piece, timed to perfection.
