In one all-too-short hour at The Courtyard, Theatre Temoin delivered a stunningly moving account of a fractured life.

Exiled and isolated on the streets, desperate for human contact, Jack (a beautifully judged performance from Bradley Thompson) is welcome nowhere until a chance encounter awakens his demons and he needs every one of his scant resources to banish them.

The Marked (a sell-out at the Edinburgh Fringe) is an impressively effective marriage of live actors, puppets and masks combined with an inventive set and costumes, designed by Zahra Mansouri, and more uses for a bin bag than I was once taught by a survival expert.

As a snapshot of one life damaged by an alcoholic parent, and a glimpse into the harsh realities - hunger, weather, suspicion and violence - of life on the street, The Marked makes an indelible impact, a not easily forgotten feeling of having been shown something that is at one and the same time a complete artifice, a fantasy world where pigeons speak, and an undeniable reality, a story that must be told.

Small scale, huge ambition - and heartbreaking.

The Marked has been developed alongside community consultants with experience of homelessness from St. Mungo’s Recovery College and Cardboard Citizens, who have participated in Mask Theatre workshops delivered with the generous support of Big Lottery’s Awards for All scheme.

Theatre Témoin in co-production with Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham with mask design by Grafted Cede Theatre and with support from The Wellcome Trust, Arts Council England, The Pleasance Islington, and Camden People’s Theatre.

From May 11 to 13, The Marked will be playing at The Tobacco Factory in Bristol - tobaccofactorytheatres.com