1927 is a London theater company that specializes in a special kind of storytelling, a blend of acting mixed with music and animation. Now 1927 brings its wildly imaginative “The Animals and Children Took to the Streets” to the Studio Theatre.
The feel of “Animals and Children” is exhilarating: delicate yet pugnacious, refined yet grotesque. Its use of film and animation is reminiscent of early 20th century silent movies. Yet those film/animation images share the stage with three actors, who play multiple roles to tell their tale. The atmosphere created by 1927 is as important as — perhaps more important than — the story it tells. That atmosphere is reminiscent of Dickens, dark with moments of comedy, brilliant in its accurate vision of humanity.
The credit for design goes to Paul Barritt, whose set is comprised of three wide floor-to-ceiling screens next to one another at the back of the Metheny Theatre stage. Each screen has a window cut in it, so that actors can address the audience through them. And the actors occasionally appear on a small thrust stage before the screens.
| Onstage |
| ‘The Animals and Children Took to the Streets’ |
| Where: The Studio Theatre, 1501 14th St. NW |
| When: Through July 1 |
| Info: $35 to $60; 202-332-3300; studiotheatre.org |
The music, by Lillian Henley, is partially played on a piano behind the screen stage left. The style of that music is fresh and whimsical, not derivative of but with affinities to Kurt Weill. The costumes, by Sarah Munro and Esme Appleton, vaguely describe the beginning of the modern era. The main character, Agnes Eaves, wears a red dress, red stockings, a little red bowler hat and a big bow tie, a perfectly prim and proper character.
“The Animals and Children” tells Agnes’ story, how she comes to the horrid Bayou, near the well-heeled city. There are cockroaches and bugs everywhere in the Bayou but innocent Agnes is determined to save the unruly children of the Bayou with her art course. The musical’s question is whether Agnes’s goodness can outstrip the evil around her.
Barritt’s animation provides plenty of cockroaches running up and down the tenements of the Bayou. It also provides a sense of movement, making the environment travel when people need to appear to move. But the most intriguing element of Barritt’s animation is the way it blends animation and actor. When the Caretaker sweeps the floor, an animated puff of dust rises up on the screen above his broom.
The three actors who perform “The Animals and Children” are Esme Appleton, Lillian Henley, and Suzanne Andrade, who is also the gifted writer and director of “Animals and Children.” James Addie provides the voice of the Caretaker.
It is rare that a truly unconventional theater work comes along, one that cannot be categorized. Haunting, understated and disarmingly witty, “The Animals and Children” is such a work.
