Salvador Kent
Danni Cullen is a natural storyteller, and weaves through the layers upon layers of her The Red Shoes with an elegant simplicity. The result is a beautifully understated forty five minute show that is often moving, funny and quite unexpected.
The first frame is a ten day Buddhist retreat in Mexico. Cullen and her peers on the retreat are banned from speaking, and spend most of their time in meditation. It is in a diversion here, whilst she reflects on her childhood that she first tells the story of the red shoes.
Hans Christian Andersen’s strange fairytale has been used as a cipher for many a theme, not least Powell and Pressburger’s mid-century film The Red Shoes which becomes a tract on obsession and control. Here though, Danni Cullen uses it as a metaphor for the forbidden and the repressed, and the unintended consequences of ‘giving into temptation’.
This is ample territory through which to explore Cullen’s upbringing and life in village Ireland. She nicely sketches the small nature of the community, developing her day-to-day life whilst exploring its claustrophobia. She tells us about an acting job playing with a co-star as a seahorse and a shark, and the subsequent affair they embark on. She explores the effect of this, and the shame culture rooted in her right from school.
It is a subtly state-of-the-nation tale, one that asks frankly how to tackle head conservative religious attitudes to sex, whilst frankly exploring the highs and the lows of the high-dopamine high-emptiness hook-up-culture. The red shoes ultimately become a symbol of freedom, Cullen proudly stating ‘no one can tell me whether I wear them or not’, but what comes before is a fascinating, nuanced exploration of the themes Cullen bravely tackles.
This is moving and warm. It played perfectly to a late-afternoon Dundee audience as an entertaining and charming piece. Danni Cullen is a beautiful storyteller and I look forward to the next project.
Performances of The Red Shoes have now concluded at Dundee Fringe 2026.
Ellen Leslie
Clara Sunset
