★★★½
Meow Meow is an international cabaret figure known for blending virtuosic singing with anarchic, unpredictable performance. Equal parts diva, clown and provocateur, she constructs shows that veer between glamour and collapse, humour and menace, intimacy and spectacle.
And in Meow Meow’s The Red Shoes, co-presented by Black Swan State Theatre Company for Perth Festival, she is every bit and then some more.
The production draws loosely upon Hans Christian Andersen’s tale The Red Shoes. It portrays not a play, but an unconventional song-driven cabaret meditation on obsession, ambition, and creative exhaustion.
Held together by a deliberately mismatched collection of songs, the show slips from her own sly, self-referential Why Must There Be an Opening Number? and Why? Why? Why? into the quiet unease of Radiohead’s No Surprises and the aching swell of Patrick Watson’s Here Comes the River. Each piece arrives as if from a different emotional universe.
Under Kate Champion’s direction, the stage becomes less a setting and more a ruin, cluttered with the remnants of a life spent performing. Costumes, instruments, discarded objects and bodies occupy the same space, indistinguishable in their purpose.
Nothing rests for long. Performers move through it like survivors picking over wreckage, everything caught in a continual push forward, as if stopping would mean disappearing altogether.
Meow Meow dominates the stage from the outset. She appears as an unwilling showgirl dragged into performance despite her apparent lack of inspiration. What follows is a chaotic, deeply self-aware display of singing, improvisation, physical comedy, audience interaction, and theatrical spectacle.
Meow Meow’s vision presents an ever-shifting tale, with help from Mark Jones, Dan Witton and Jethro Woodward, who hover at the edges and then step into the centre, shifting roles as needed: musicians, attendants, conspirators, and characters.
From a refrigerator stuffed with half-formed thoughts and abandoned ideas, the author himself emerges, operatic, imposing, brought vividly to life by Kanen Breen, whose pipes are brandished wholeheartedly, ranged small, soft to deep, carrying, and always magnificent.
Meow Meow’s The Red Shoes is splendidly absurd, a heady concoction of genres, tones, messages, songs, and anecdotes. Beautiful voices blend in harmony or belt independently through slow ballads and epic rock numbers, backed by the band The Why Why Whys’ rich instrumentals and fantastic vocal arrangements. And above all, it is just so funny.
An escapade of hilarity, almost stand-up, threads between and through the catchy tunes, before giving way to heartfelt songs at the end. They are undeniably funny and engaging; you are never bored for a second. Yet there appears to be a fine line between what will happen next? in its delicious absurdity, and where is this going?
Whether a remix, a remake, or simply a borrowing of The Red Shoes’ name to analyse or contrast its themes remains open to interpretation. Meow Meow’s The Red Shoes is a shot of espresso, pure entertainment. And if that is enough, then perhaps that is enough. Deciphering a cohesive story, or uncovering a deeper meaning however, is another question.
Meow Meow’s The Red Shoes is presented by Black Swan State Theatre Company, Malthouse Theatre and Belvoir St Theatre. It runs to 1 March at His Majesty’s Theatre as part of 2026 Perth Festival. 827-905 Hay Street Perth WA 6000.
Tickets: https://www.perthfestival.com.au/program/season-2026/meow-meows-the-red-shoes
Website: https://blackswantheatre.com.au/
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/blackswanstc/ and https://www.instagram.com/perthfest/
Photo credits: Brett Boardman
