'Ballet Shoes' review — this affectionate refresh of Noel Streatfeild's beloved dancing children's book hits the sweet spot

Read our review of Ballet Shoes, starring Grace Saif, Yanexi Enrique, Daisy Sequerra and Pearl Mackie, now in performances at the National Theatre to 22 February 2025.

In Noel Streatfeild’s 1936 children’s novel Ballet Shoes, retired academics Drs Jakes and Smith attend a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream featuring their young friends Pauline and Petrova Fossil as members of Titania’s entourage and “enjoy themselves as true Shakespeareans always enjoy themselves… Fortunately, they found plenty to disapprove of or they would not have enjoyed themselves at all”. True Streatfeildians are also a real quantity – protective of the characters they’ve grown up with and the world of interwar genteel poverty that they inhabit, but also willing to look at the story through a more modern lens.

This new adaptation by Kendall Feaver hits the sweet spot, thankfully retaining the 1930s setting and celebrating what a visionary Streatfeild was with her focus on young women shaping their own destinies, the importance of technique and hard graft, and the gift of found families. Katy Rudd’s graceful, fluid production is a continual flurry of activity at the Children’s Academy of Dancing and Stage Training filled with aspiring ballerinas in turquoise tutus. Ellen Kane’s choreography is a delight and always organic.

In a crumbling, fossil-filled house on the Cromwell Road, Pearl Mackie’s aspiring artist Sylvia is the calming influence, having had her first orphan foisted upon her by her laissez-faire palaeontologist Great Uncle Matthew (GUM) at the age of 12 (her age isn’t specified in the book, but she surely isn’t that young), with two more following in quick succession, leading to rumours. In this version, she works outside the home in a factory and as a cleaner – as if running a house without mod-cons and looking after three high-spirited children isn’t enough.

Of course, at the heart of the story are the three sisters-by-chance: Pauline (Grace Saif, stroppier than Streatfeild’s version) discovers her love for acting; Petrova (Yanexi Enriquez), the only one to have a real inner life in the book, sees performing as a means to an end and longs to be a mechanic or an aviator, and precocious Posy (Daisy Sequerra) is born to dance but has a great deal to learn about discipline on the way.

Frankie Bradshaw’s gorgeous set, a cabinet of curiosities, recalls the first room in the V&A’s Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser exhibition, beautifully lit by Paule Constable. In an avant-garde production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with robot-esque costumes, the tenderhearted Petrova gets her chance to defy gravity and discovers her voice in the process.

There’s a lovely turn from Helena Lymbery as Dr Jakes, who resents living in such chaos at first but proves to be an absolute brick. The “real” Pauline would never ask “Are you a lesbian”, but it allows for the backstory of the death of her partner that has led to her redundancy and reduced circumstances to emerge.

It seems a missed opportunity not to have her double as Madame Fidolia (played here by Justin Salinger, who also embodies GUM). A climactic dream ballet shows Fidolia’s younger self (danced by Xolisweh Ana Richards) being run out of Russia by the Bolsheviks, which may go over the heads of younger audience members but makes for a powerful set-piece.

Jenny Galloway’s wonderfully wry, seen-it-all Nana gets all the best lines. As with the 2007 BBC adaptation, a romance is fabricated between Sylvia and immigrant lodger Mr Saran (Mr Simpson, and a married man, in the book). Sid Sagar makes a charmingly nervous suitor, and Nadine Higgins as vivacious teacher Theo Dane is full of the joy of dance, for which natural talent ought to be no barrier, and has a wardrobe to die for.

It’s surprising that this story hasn’t yet been turned into a fully-fledged musical and there are many moments where a song would slot in perfectly. Madame Fidolia informs Posy: “To dance in a pair of shoes is to ruin them”. There’s some deconstruction and revisionism here but it’s all affectionately done – though GUM still deserves more tough love than he gets. It might not hit the heights of last year’s National Theatre Christmas show The Witches, but still a very winning fairy on top of the Christmas tree for this season.

Ballet Shoes is at the National Theatre to 22 February 2025. Book Ballet Shoes tickets on London Theatre.

Photo credit: Ballet Shoes (Photos by Manuel Harlan)