Adult fairytale tellers, Valise Noir, share their first ever performances of two-sided fable, The Girl In The Shoes, at Lighthouse Poole – with a little musical scenery from Mr Peach.

Fresh from completing the score to creative amigo Hazel Evans’ exhibition Adventures Into The Monochronium, Momo:tempo was commissioned to add some melodic flavour to a new original theatre project. A collaboration between Hazel, who is Lighthouse Poole’s artist in residence, and award-winning story-teller Michelle O’Brien, Valise Noir was developing a new tale to tell on two levels when they approached Timo Peach to consider some music for the show.

Premiering on Saturday 17th November 2012, The Girl In The Shoes is the story of  a young girl leaving the country for a new life in 19th century Paris, where she finds herself working for a mysterious shoe maker she never sees. Told for children in an afternoon performance, with uproarous results by all acounts, the same story was re-enacted that evening with a rather more adult flavour, and entitled Killer Heels.

“It’s a bold idea,” says Timo. “Telling a story once for kids and then again for adults is interesting as a device, as it can unearth some lovely hidden twists on things of course – like flicking different lighting on the same stage. And in this case, it unearthed some especially bold ideas to attempt on stage.”

Featuring some darkly erotic scenes and potentially disturbing themes, Killer Heels is performed solely by Michelle and Hazel, using little more than a few shoe boxes, a couple of costume changes, a few projections and a spot of scene music. A daring ambition, perhaps, and one that in the event created a captivating atmosphere.

“It was charming,” Timo says. “They really pulled it off – I wasn’t sure how they would deliver some of the more, ah, demanding ideas and scenes and in the end we were all spellbound by it for over an hour. Innovative, clever work. And, as a developing piece, I wasn’t sure exactly how the pieces I’d scored for the show would be used – it wasn’t like writing to picture or anything like that. I was really creating musical impressions of their key ideas, for them to play with and use as an aural prop, essentially. It was great fun wondering what would pop up next. And the project coaxed out some nicely whimsical melodies from my little white piano. Great fun to be a small part of.”

Further performances of Killer Heels are to be announced in due course, and one or two pieces from the score will be appearing on Momo’s Soundcloud pages soon.