Director/writer Suzanne Andrade
Film/animation and design Paul Barritt
1927
HOME
6 February 2019 to 16 February 2019
Based in Margate and London but travellers of the world, 1927 here revive the second of their hit shows, premiered at Sydney Opera House in 2010 - the one they thought might flop, but which has proved just about their biggest success.
The show has been seen 400 times and counting, in 80 venues in 28 countries and 1927 are an associate company of HOME, so that's good then.
Featuring their signature mix of film animation, live action and live music, it’s a 70-minute non-stop theatrical event not quite like any other; a cross between Tim Burton and Hitchcock, strained through the pages of a graphic novel and projected on three large screens.
The infamous Bayou Mansions is a hated, cockroach infested-apartment block in a part of the city you definitely wouldn't want to go to at night.
Intending to do something, if she can, to improve the image of the neighbourhood - notoriously, the policy is once born in the Bayou, you stay in the Bayou - the somewhat naive do-gooder, Agnes Eaves, and her daughter Evie (the latter conjured entirely out of animation), try to tame the rioting local kids by involving them in craft work with pasta and glue.
Unsurprisingly it doesn’t work, but it’s only when the little monsters invade a middle-class city park and their actions start to affect the wider citizenship that the authorities begin to take notice.
Lots of messages here about whole sections of our society being ignored by the powers that be and the devastating results it can have – Brexit anyone?
The solution in this case turns out to be drastically life-changing for the kids – and I don’t think 1927 are suggesting Mrs May can escape her predicament by introducing something similar into the water supply, though the three Bayou crones, in a heartfelt postscript, certainly approve.
Just three actors bring the whole thing to 3D life: take a bow - and they do - Felicity Sparks, Genevieve Dunne and Rowena Lennon (with James Addie as the voice of the Caretaker) – working in front of the quite frankly amazing animations by Paul Barritt.
It’s very funny, thought provoking and altogether a must-see.