Hummingbird

It’s amazing what some people can do with a table and a couple of suitcases. Tooth+Nail, an exciting young company whose members trained at the influential Jacques Lecoq school in Paris, use these simple props to tell the story of murderers in 1950s America.

Edith Cole and Ralph Conti, the ‘Lonely Hearts Killers’ (fictional, but seemingly based on similar real life cases) met through a personal ad, fell in love and started killing people. Set to a soundtrack of fifties American music, this physical piece captures the seedy, noirish elegance of the time.

A lot of the narrative is presented visually and silently through graceful acrobatics, with a bit of old fashioned mime to boot. The cast of three—Harriet Feeny as Edith, François Lecomte as Ralph and Adam Gordon as a cop-cum-narrator—are great physical performers but not top-notch actors. 

The movement is beautiful to watch, and the cast create ghostly characters from the bare minimum of props, but whenever the script comes in the American accents are off and the heart isn’t really there. They express a lot more through suggestion, silhouette and shadow than through speaking. 

The story sags and slows down at points, too, with long silent scenes in which the narrative could be clearer. But it’s worth making a note of this company, as they clearly know how to take a story, tell it inventively and with oodles of style.