PPP: Dancing Shoes
★★★☆☆ Joyful
Traverse: Tue 1 – Sat 5 Apr 2025
Review by Hugh Simpson
There is a heart-warming element of the fantastic as well as sympathetic realism in Dancing Shoes, the latest Play, Pie and a Pint from Òran Mór at the Traverse.
Stephen Christopher and Graeme Smith’s play is about three men who strike up a tentative friendship after meeting at a support group for those in recovery from addiction issues.
Ross Allan, Stephen Docherty and Craig Mclean in Dancing Shoes. Pic Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
Twenty-something Jay (Craig Mclean) wants to repair his relationship with his young daughter and Craig (Ross Allan) is facing up to his 40th birthday sober.
Donny (Stephen Docherty) is in his sixties, with the recent death of his mother leading him to seek help for the alcohol addiction that has gone on for most of his life. Donny reveals to the others that his ‘thing’ that has replaced alcohol in his life is dancing alone in his bedroom. But when Jay’s video of Donny’s dance moves goes viral, things change.
subtly made points
Christopher and Smith’s writing is full of humour, as well as some subtly made points about male relationships, addiction and recovery, social class, anxiety and despair. The depictions of vulnerable individuals, and of how they are treated by society, are done with sympathy and without preaching.
Ross Allan, Stephen Docherty and Craig Mclean in Dancing Shoes. Pic Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
The end result does try just a bit too hard to be both uplifting and rooted in reality, both funny and serious, and ends up doing too many things at once.
This is longer than most PPP productions, and certainly seems a little stretched out. Despite this, the characters’ backstories are largely (and deliberately) left unexplored. This means that the characters are a shade underdeveloped, as well as leading to a little too much in the way of meta-theatrical engaging with the audience.
engaging
It’s all very engaging, however, directed with a sprightly authority by PPP Artistic Director Brian Logan and extremely well performed. Docherty gives Donny real pathos, while his dancing (courtesy of Jack Webb’s movement choreography) is a joy to behold. Allan and Mclean, meanwhile, display command of both verbal and physical comedy.
Heather Grace Currie’s simple but effective design, Ross Kirkland’s lighting and Ross Nurney’s sound help to make the production an assured one. A certain unevenness of tone counts against it, but the overall effect is very positive.
Running time: One hour and 5 minutes (no interval)
Traverse Theatre, 10 Cambridge St, EH1 2ED
Tuesday 1 – Saturday 5 April 2025
Daily at 1.00 pm
Details and tickets: Book here.
Craig Mclean, Stephen Docherty and Craig Mclean in Dancing Shoes. Pic Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
ENDS
