'The Animals and Children Took to the Streets'- 1927

Founded in 2005, ‘1927 Theatre Company’ are well-renowned for merging projected animation with live performance to create beautifully polished performances, gaining them numerous awards since their establishment. Their quirky style is reminiscent of a Tim Burton movie, combining comedy with a pinch of dark humour – a cabaret show with a live soundtrack played by the performers themselves. On the 8^th February, ‘1927’ performed their well-loved piece, ‘The Animals and Children Took to the Streets’, at the HOME Theatre, Manchester.

There’s a place in the city called Red Herring Street. An unloved, dingy and dank thoroughfare, where shops sell stolen goods, and prostitutes, paedophiles and murderers live in the flats upstairs. One day, Agnes Eaves and her daughter Evie movie in to the Bayou mansions. Armed with pasta bows and PVA glue, she aims to save the children from a life where “when you’re born in the Bayou, you die in the Bayou”. Riots break out, as the children of Red Herring Street fight for equality, chanting “we want what you’ve got”, only to be snatched the following night by the mayor, a pied piper figure, who uses Granny’s Gumdrops to sedate them into obedience.

It’s rare to see a truly original piece of theatre that astounds a person so significantly. But that is just what this performance did – writer and director Suzanne Andrade has simply outdone herself.

A simple set of three large flats* provides the perfect foundation for Paul Barritt's animations to be projected upon, allowing the tiny cast of 3 to be surrounded by an explosion of comic-like settings and supported by additional characters, which they also interact with, making the cast seem more like 15. The set also allowed for the actors to look through the animation, with cut outs that created windows, which could easily be covered to continue the seamless projection. This created some exciting opportunities that were made good use of throughout.

The actors demonstrate their incredible talents, multi-rolling at every opportunity, and appearing as 3D actors in a 2D comic book, sleeping in an upright bed, riding the mayor’s cat, and being bombarded with signs, arrows and hands from every direction.

Interactions between the projections and actors were equally seamless, and it was clear just how much time was put into perfecting this performance. Even simple actions like sweeping were stunning, with the actor using the broom live, followed by a projected cloud of dust at the perfect timing.

A particular favourite feature of mine is the character of the caretaker. With the deep monotonous voice of James Addie played as a stream of consciousness over the female actor, the character becomes an unlikely hero in the midst of this satirical and twisted fairy tale, and we find he is the one we sympathise with most, with his gloomy and bleak outlook, and trivial longing for Agnes Eaves.

Another notable addition to the piece was the presence of an actress as the audience entered the auditorium, who was handing out bags of ‘Granny’s Gumdrops’. This was very cleverly done, and it was instantly noticeable how she chose to hand them out to audience members who were uninterested and avoiding her eye contact. Later we learnt what the sweets contain, and it created a lovely moment of panic and confusion in the audience, as those who ate the sweets realised what they had consumed, and those who were previously gutted that they missed out breathed a sigh of relief.

All in all, this wonderfully whacky, if slightly tongue in cheek performance, provides an interesting comment on society, where the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. It evokes some interesting thoughts around society, rebellion and a whole host of other relevant themes. Its experimental nature and almost caricature genre was both delightful to watch and truly original and inspiring. I only wish more people joined me in a standing ovation as the show came to an end.

 

*a flat refers to an upright section of stage scenery, that can be painted, covered with soft cloth or hard and made of wood.