“It’s not what you want, but it’s definitely what you need,” declares Meow Meow – a line that could double as her artistic manifesto. And no one falls quite as fabulously as she does.

The Red Shoes takes Hans Christian Andersen’s prim little morality tale and drags it, feathers first, through the grit and glitter of modern cabaret. What begins as a story of a girl undone by vanity becomes, in Meow Meow’s hands, a darkly comic, defiantly adult exploration of desire, audacity and performance itself – the exquisite cost of never stopping the dance.

Meow Meow (born Melissa Madden Gray) is a diva teetering on the edge, part goddess, part broken showgirl, navigating the tangled beauty and absurdity of life with flamboyant assurance.This Australian-born performer has made her name with an avant-garde cabaret style that fuses Weimar-era cabaret, French chanson, and contemporary performance art into something that is ALL her own.

What Meow Meow does best is deconstruct—art, story, theatre, life. Red Shoes becomes a meditation on creation and motion, even when reality feels frayed and your feet refuse to follow. Through the absurdity and exhaustion, she reminds us that performance is both survival and surrender, a kind of beautiful self-deception that lets us keep going. Around her, the story bends, snaps, and pirouettes between chaos and revelation. You’re never quite sure if you’re watching a show or wandering inside the vivid, slightly unhinged world of her imagination. Anything, and everything, can and does happen. Don’t try to make sense. Just watch.

The set, designed by Dann Barber, looks like the ghost of an old vaudeville theatre, part dusty strip joint, part forgotten attic, strewn with a huge pile of stuff that gradually finds its place in the story. A broken chair becomes a throne, a discarded lamp a spotlight, and a humble refrigerator a Pandora’s box. Recycling despair has never looked so divine. Everything is, of course, a metaphor- for the mess we make, the memories we hoard, and the strange comfort of reinvention.

Most of Meow Meow’s songs are laments disguised as anthems, self-aware, sharply political, bruised torch songs stitched with irony, spoken word, and wicked humour. Her voice moves between raw cabaret rasp and a throaty resonance to otherworldly – utterly unguarded. One moment she’s whispering a confession, the next she’s launching into a howl that fills the theatre.

It’s difficult to track the story as it twists, turns, and occasionally spirals into chaos, but just go with me when I say: Kanen Breen’s entrance is one I’ll never forget. The divine fawn-slash-opera singer of the ensemble brings a voice that soars with effortless grace. His duets with Meow Meow are moments of pure magic, and he inhabits the stage with a mix of hysterical energy and impeccable timing, adding texture, colour, and a touch of class and whimsy to every note.

The red shoes themselves are never just props; they are the pulse of the show, a symbol of endurance, desire, and defiance. Putting them on is putting on armour. Sensual, deliberate, and unyielding. So, from one shoe aficionado to another, thank you, Meow.Meow Meow revels in the fullness of being female, in the body in motion, and in the vital necessity of movement-physical, creative, and fierce—to survive a world that is often messy and cruel.

Meow Meow’s The Red Shoes reminds you that theatre isn’t just entertainment; it’s a space to feel, to think, and to confront the absurdity of life with a laugh, a gasp, and maybe even a tear. This is cabaret stripped down, rebuilt, and thrown at you in all its glorious, unpredictable, unruly splendour. You’ll leave slightly disoriented but oddly grateful that Meow thinks it’s worth dancing through the wreckage of the world. See it. Feel it. Try to keep up.

Meow struts her stuff at Belvoir Upstairs theatre until 9 Nov 25. For details see :https://belvoir.com.au/productions/meow-meows-the-red-shoes/

Dance, laugh, gasp… repeat. Follow Faith in Theatres on Instagram and Facebook for the full theatrical menu. Because theatre needs Faith.