REVIEW: Murmurs Devoured by the Sea:

©️ Photo by MJ George

There is something beautifully tactile at the heart of Murmurs Devoured by the Sea. Written, directed and choreographed by Tutu Ching (Writer, Director & Choreographer), the production approaches grief and memory less as ideas to be explained than as things that can be physically shaped, carried and transformed.

At the centre of the piece is a woman’s encounter with the sea, a journey that gradually unfolds into something less literal and more concerned with loss, memory and the difficulty of letting go. The recurring image of a fish becomes bound up with an absent child and unresolved grief, while the sea itself seems to hold and return memories that refuse to disappear. Rather than following a conventional narrative, the production moves between fragments of story, poetic text and physical imagery, allowing the boundary between the woman’s external journey and her inner landscape to blur. The piece ultimately frames this experience not as a search for neat closure, but as a ritual of remembering and saying goodbye.

Its most effective theatrical language comes from an unexpectedly simple material: paper. Sheets are folded, crushed and reshaped throughout the performance, becoming puppets, boats and fragments of a constantly changing landscape. The material has an appealing fragility, allowing objects to appear almost spontaneously before disappearing back into something abstract. Some of the production’s most charming images emerge from this simplicity.

That same sense of transformation runs through the ensemble. Charlotte Touboulic (Performer), Kyu Sim (Performer), Levenka Andrea (Performer) and Pearl Seraphina Lee (Performer) work with an impressive physical attentiveness to one another. The transitions rarely feel forced, and there is a particularly strong sense that the performers are listening physically to one another rather than simply executing choreography. Individual roles emerge and recede fluidly, while small changes in posture, rhythm or spatial relationship are often enough to redirect the narrative.

Yet Murmurs Devoured by the Sea is not entirely a movement work. Poetic text surfaces throughout, alongside breath, chanting and folk-inflected songs. The songs are especially effective. Their simple, almost traditional quality lends the piece a sense of something remembered or inherited, sitting naturally within its recurring images of sea, absence and mourning.

The visual and sonic framework surrounding this work is considerably more restrained. Sound design by Andy Ho and Tutu Ching (Sound Designers) supports the piece without overwhelming it, but both sound and lighting currently feel more functional than fully integrated into the dramaturgy. Given how carefully the production works with rhythm, breath and shifting physical images, there is room for these elements to respond more dynamically to the performers and create a richer theatrical landscape.

At its best, however, Murmurs Devoured by the Sea understands that grief does not necessarily need to be narrated in order to be felt. It can live in repetition, in a body carrying another body, in a piece of paper becoming a boat, or in four performers breathing together. The production may still have space to develop its technical language, but its physical one is already clear. Its most resonant moments arrive when bodies, voices and humble materials are allowed to do what the piece itself proposes: give shape to something that cannot quite be spoken.

For more information, please visit: https://camdenfringe.com/events/murmurs-devoured-by-the-sea/

★★★★

Cast
Charlotte Touboulic
Kyu Sim
Levenka Andrea
Pearl Seraphina Lee

Creative Team

Writer, Director & Choreographer: Tutu Ching
Assistant Director: Tiffany Yeung
Sound Designers: Andy Ho, Tutu Ching
Stage Manager: Clara Seitz
Dramaturg: Tessa Walker
Producing Consultant: Alex Stroming
Photographer & Videographer: MJ George

Poster Image: Sarah Hyojin Kim
Illustration: Elsy Bao

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