In 2017,
Open Eye Theatre premiered The Red Shoes, inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen story of the vain little girl with pretty red shoes cursed so that her shoes will never stop dancing. The show also "draws inspiration and influences from the vintage detective novels of
Raymond Chandler and
Dashiell Hammett, case studies of amnesia and multiple personality, and black and white film noir movies of the 1940s" (per director and co-writer Joel Sass, along with Kimberly Richardson). They were all set to remount it in March of 2020, when the pandemic shut down all live performance. Happily, a year and a half later, it is opening their live in-person 2021-2022 season in their charming and intimate space in South Minneapolis. Also happily but not surprisingly,
The Red Shoes is still "something so curious and unique, odd and chilling, inventive and charming, it's thoroughly captivating from start to finish." And perhaps even more relevant and relatable after we've all spent so much time trapped inside our homes with only our own thoughts and imagination to fill the time and space.
