Erica J. Brennan puts a hard and bloody spin on the folk tale trope of vagina dentata in The Hero Leaves One Tooth, a black comedy developed from an earlier, shorter piece presented at the Old 505 Theatre in 2017.

Cara Whitehouse in The Hero Leaves One Tooth. Photo © Clare Hawley

The production starts with a flash of backstory, a brief scene of an assault on a young woman out jogging.

Next, a song! A rollicking Jacques Brel-ish ensemble number sung by people we haven’t met. The lyrics don’t make immediate sense, though they foreshadow much:

“The butcher, the baker, they both had a fling/

The bait man and blacksmith, the cobbler and King/

They all pushed their luck, they all took a stand/

And they all returned home with their dick in their hand.

Cut to a modern-day dining room and a dinner party hosted by partners Felix (Michael McStay) and Neeve (Kira-Che Heelan) – the woman we observed earlier.

Anxious and a klutz in the kitchen, Felix is curating the night around a slide show of photos from his recent 100-day trip to Europe. The gathering will be an all-analogue affair, he insists....