Shoe Lady was premiering at The Royal Court Theatre in London in March when theatres were told to cancel further performances and close due to the coronavirus pandemic. Four productions were therefore chosen to be part of a special weekend 'Lockdown Theatre Festival' in which the actors and actresses recorded their parts in isolation and were then edited and put together in a slightly rewritten form to accommodate the new medium of radio, and were aired over the weekend on radio 3 and 4.
The first of the four was this, Shoe Lady from the pen of E.V. Crowe. It is a rather surreal and bizarre piece of theatre, and, after listening, a rather insubstantial one too. However it does work surprisingly well on radio, since it is by and large, a monologue.
A middle-aged lady, living in London, with a normal life, a normal job, a husband, responsibilities. And then it starts, a downward spiral into madness and neuroticism. It starts with the curtains. The curtains fall lopsided from the railings, and she can't go to work until they are put right. She talks to the curtains - and they talk back to her! - yes I told you it was surreal!
On her way to work, in the tube, she loses one of her shoes. And then, after meeting a homeless lady who also only has one shoe, goes to the police station to see if anyone has handed the shoe in, and then decides to visit a shoe-shop to steal a pair... it's one of those downward spiral sort of days!
The whole play can be seen in terms of allegory. First, it is a story which shows and emphasises just how quickly and how far a life can be taken from the norm. It highlights the fragility of our very existence, and our inability to cope with things outside our own sphere of knowledge and comfort. But the shoe is also a metaphor; it represents capitalism perhaps, an object of desire? a mundane necessity? or is it bigger than that and represents modern life itself. It's a play which unveils the female neurosis of middle-class urban existence, and highlights the precariousness of contemporary city life.
Kathrine Parkinson excels as a person on the edge, descending into chaos unable to "get a grip". But the play sadly does not grip. Maybe it would have held more visually, but the story, on radio at least, was not gripping enough to sustain interest, and ultimately had nothing new to say.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 14/6/20
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