Imagine a life in which “every morning is like waking in somebody else’s bad dream.” The British Theatre Company 1927 keenly observe urban decay and despair as it strikes its most vulnerable denizens: children. In a theatrical extravaganza of actors, live music and animation, with imaginative flair, impeccable precision, a fine sense of the bizarre and Gothic pizzazz, 1927 takes us where we might not venture on our own: the grim realities of contemporary urban life.
1927 presented The Animals and Children Took to the Streets at the Israel Festival, and it’s shows like this that make the Israel Festival such an exciting annual event; the festival’s ability to seek out and bring performances to Israel that expand the realm of the possible and open our eyes and minds to new vistas of art and culture.
Enchant your audience and make them laugh, it’s a time-honored technique for artists with a message, for then the audience will be open and receptive to hearing hard truths. The only hitch in the plan: it’s not at all easy to accomplish. Many shows created with a sincere desire to open hearts and minds fall short, succumbing to superficiality, stuck in the didactic doldrums or suffering from some other tragic theatrical flaw. Happily, 1927 presents a show that is sheer fun, a seductive mix of provocative social critique, sensual delirium with luscious layers of cinematic, literary and cultural references – pure pleasure!
Delivering a horror story, fairy tale and comedy all rolled into one, with just the right measure of romance, 1927 had the audience hanging on the edge of their seat and dazzled by the art and imagery. It’s a profoundly visual show, with animation, staging, costume and set design working together to create a feast for the eyes, yet at the same time, the intelligent text and memorable characters are strong elements in this genre-bending show.
1927 have a knack for eliciting empathy without descending into the kind of sentimental slobber that typically leaves this writer slightly repulsed by those offerings so often touted as “a touching human story.” Creators of political or social theatre often seem to rely on what the audience already knows about poverty and other woes of humanity, inserting key words like “abuse,” “hate crimes,” or a fatal illness to elicit instant sympathy for a character or situation, or gruesome images of extreme situations that are nothing more than a copy/paste collage of mass media sludge – without much internal justification, resulting in texts that are not only clichéd and banal, but exceedingly predictable. I like a little suspense in my theatre experience if you please, and 1927 delivers with a punch.
The heraldic voice of the narrator (with such excellent diction! Israeli actors – take note!) welcomes the audience to “Another day in the Bayou Mansions, the thorn in this city’s side, the ghost at the feast,” invites us to enter this world, to examine all that is usually overlooked in this “beautiful city” with its abundance of art and culture, “milk and honey in every frigidaire.” Live actors interact with animation, bringing to life the dismal environs of the Bayou Mansions where children are a blight on the landscape and a source of fear, the “queer fish” of a poetic caretaker who spends his days sweeping and his nights, “contemplating his loneliness” writing in his journal, the cynical owner of the junk shop and her rebellious daughter Zelda who yearns to make her mark. Into this den of depravity and depression comes cheery Agnes Eaves with her daughter Evie, armed with dry pasta bows, glue and good intentions to change the lives of the children in Bayou Mansions through craft projects.
The surreal plot and images dance on from there, giving the audience a good time and a good kick in the pants, all for the price of a theatre ticket.
