Camille LeFevre

Special to the Star Tribune

The air was stifling hot, the room saturated with lethargy. As viewers fanned themselves, the dancers moved with a limpness that signaled impending heat exhaustion. It appeared the non-air-conditioned theater might suffocate "Crimes and Whispers," even as it conjured the torpor of the show's Buenos Aires setting.

But the performers rallied. Florencia Taccetti and Jennifer Ilse, in particular, gave finely wrought performances, emotional and honest. While the 75-minute show - co-produced by Gerry Girouard and Dancers, and Off-Leash Area - was uneven in concept and execution, the two female leads steered the story away from melodrama, and into well-sounded depths of violence, despair and denial.

In 16 tableaux-like sections, "Crimes and Whispers" re-imagines the time after the 1976 military coup, during which thousands of citizens permanently "disappeared" at the hands of the junta, and mothers started circling the Plaza de Mayo with pictures of the disappeared. Paul Herwig's sky-blue set, painted with cartoon-like cityscapes, houses secret doors, black-curtained openings, and panels that peel away to reveal images of violence.

Violence also is conveyed through Girouard's choreography, a highly physical blend of tango, acrobatics and break-dance moves. Victims twist and cower beneath the feet and legs of the junta, who imprison their victims with...