Freelance Traveller

#80: Ballet Shoes

This originally appeared in the May/June 2026 issue.

My confession this time is that I went to see Ballet Shoes at the theatre. I was told it was too ‘girlie’, I was told it was too juvenile. I was told I wouldn’t enjoy it. (For those who don’t know, it’s based on the young people’s book by Noel Streatfeild – and yes, I did spell that correctly – about three orphan girls, living together as sisters, and their growing up with ballet fairly central to their young lives.)

There were voices putting me off, or indeed laughing at me going, but aside from being interested in a book my wife considered a favourite as a child and had long loved, I was drawn by a love of live theatre and the opportunity for a very occasional trip to London was attractive too. I was pretty sure I’d enjoy the story as well. I wasn’t wrong on any of those counts.

This isn’t intended as a review, but the production, at the National Theatre and on the Olivier stage was top notch, the story worth bothering with and the outing a lot of fun despite the exhaustion. I also took some writerly interest in the comparison of book (which I read the day before and on the train up) and the script (which I bought afterwards and devoured). Indeed, if I had any complaint about the show, it was that Laurence Olivier would have been turning in his grave at the lack of projection and e-nun-ci-ation which meant that it was worth reading the script to pick up the bits I missed. I’d blame getting old, but I wasn’t the only one that thought the voices should have been at least as loud as the music in the ‘in between’ bits.

The Traveller relevance of this is (at least) four-fold. Firstly, one of the things that quite impressed me was some of the theatrical conceits that did so much with so little. It’s relevant to the story that one of the girls is found in a shipwreck, but it’s a minor bit of back story. Obviously a full set comprising sailing ship at sea would be ridiculous in terms of time, effort and cost, but three sheets and a pole or two were gracefully ‘sailed’ on and off stage in just a few moments and together with acting and sound really ‘took’ you to the moment.

Another such moment was Alice (of Wonderland fame) falling down the rabbit hole (in a stage production one of the girls is involved with) which was recreated with half a dozen or so hula hoops and again was just a moment but caught the viewer up in in the moment brilliantly.

There was also a ‘memory mirror’ when an older dancer, nearing the end of her life, looks into a mirror and sees her younger self dancing once again. Of course, it wasn’t a mirror, just a frame with another member of the troupe then ‘emerging’ from it to dance as the older figure watched. Incredibly simple; incredibly moving.

I can't help feeling I ‘overdo’ some of my attempts to engage players and could do much more with much less if I thought about the spirit of what I was trying to achieve, rather than the detail.

A second takeaway for Referees was in having ‘outlandish’ characters and yet somehow making them work within the story. You want larger than life on the stage certainly but I think the same might be true for adventures – at least for convention one offs. Here the effect was magnified by having one actor playing the uncle, the elderly Russian ballet dancer, a US film producer (never on stage at the same time). If I hadn’t known it was the same actor, I’d have never guessed. They key was that they were made believable within the context of the story. The production made them seem quite reasonable even when a moment’s explanation might have made them seem ridiculous.

Thirdly, the stage play was not slavish to the book but treated the source with respect. Some of the changes were relatively minor and could possibly be argued to have been there in the book but not overtly. The spinster academics sharing rooms for example, being made gay, but compare Holmes and Watson and modern treatments of their relationship. More freewheeling was the replacement of a businessman and family who’d been out in Malaysia being replaced by a (single) Indian (and Indian actor) who then became a love interest. I can certainly see why you might want to diversify the speaking roles (the ensemble troupe wasn’t a problem) and, while it mattered to the story, it was done in a very positive way rather than merely being for the sake of diversity. I think some Referees using published material can get a little focussed on ‘keeping to the text’ (I’m sure I’ve done it) rather than allowing the story the PCs and players are telling to go where it will or even to go where it must.

Fourthly, the production was very good at pulling on your heart strings without becoming sentimental. This is really hard to do well in Traveller gaming but can be worth it. Although care needs to be taken. I really went for this in Batch 24381 but hadn’t quite foreseen just how melancholic I’d made the ending. There definitely should have been something ‘after’ the climax to allow a wind down. I don’t think it came across as sentimental but I was pleased that it had had that emotion and dare I say, some depth. You’ll have to ask those who’ve played it.

I wrote elsewhere recently about sometimes finding adventure in roleplaying and real life by stepping out. Literally stepping out as Bilbo did, stepping out of your comfort zone as I did with Ballet Shoes. Yes, it’s a risk, yes it may end in something so-so or even a failure but the rewards can outweigh the fear or dismissal.

Oh, and finally, speak up!