The critically acclaimed 1927 create theatre quite unlike anything else you’ve seen. They are innovative storytellers weaving animation, performance and film to create striking, unsettling performances. Spoken word, cabaret, fairy tales, silent film and music hall songs all play a part in their audiovisual menagerie.

Paul Barritt is the man behind the animation and design of 1927’s intense and fantastical theatre productions. He founded 1927 along with writer and performer Suzanne Andrade back in 2005, joined shortly after by pianist and performer Lillian Henley and performer and costumer maker Esme Appleton. The team created quite a stir at the Edinburgh festival in 2007 with their debut ‘The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea’. Since they they’ve worked on a number of productions and won a whole string of awards, performing at Glastonbury and Latitude and at theatres as diverse as South Carolina and South Korea.

Following two sell-out runs, 1927 are returning to the National Theatre with their much-admired production of ‘The Animals and Children Took to the Streets’. We caught up with Paul to talk stories, horror films… and tenement blocks.

Emily Shipp: What was the inspiration behind The Animals and the Children?

Paul Barritt: The main inspiration for all of our work is the Modern Condition.  

ES: Is there a story behind the name 1927? And was there something particular about that year that relates to your performances?

PB: The year 1927 is the year of the first Talkie film. Our performances often have quite a bit in common with silent films, the acting style, the live piano, the style of the films.  

ES: There's a very distinctive style to your work, with the costumes, the music and a strong sense of the macabre – how did that evolve?

PB: This evolved quite naturally and is still evolving. It comes from a love of horror movies amongst other things!!
 

ES: Storytelling is at the core of 1927's productions – what kind of stories did you most enjoy when you were growing up?

PB: There was this really weird story in a book about a little bird that takes away the eyes of a statue, I can't quite remember what it was called, but the feeling of it remains with me. Also the film Watership Down, with the black ghost rabbit. And I had a book about Romani gypsies, that was a favourite. That and the usual boys’ adventure stories.  

ES: Are there any stories that have particularly influenced your work with 1927?

PB: Both Suzanne and I (and the rest of the 1927 for that matter) are pretty hardcore readers so it all kind of goes in. Not sure there was a particular story though.  My current recommendation is the Vorrh by Brian Catling.

ES: What inspired the “part of the city feared and loathed” and the “stinking, sprawling tenement block” in The Animals and The Children...? Is it based on a real location?

PB: It was loosely based on our trip to Hong Kong, we checked out the Chung King Mansions and were pretty amazed at the energy of the place. The architecture of the buildings is taken from a few sketchbook drawings I made over there. But it then developed into more of a high rise estate, the sort of thing you might find in London or any other city for that matter.  

ES: 1927 have performed around the world, including South Carolina, Sri Lanka, South Korea and Singapore - did you find that you got very different responses to your performances? And which audience was the most remarkable?

PB: The all time maddest audience we ever had was in Changsha in China. It was full of 8 year old kids who watched in silence throughout. Once it was over and everyone came out for their bows they went nuts and invaded the stage desperate to have their photos taken with us. The children literally took to the streets!! It was amazing, surrounded by 300 little Chinese nutters all legging it about. We'd been performing in a place called the Red Theatre, an old communist theatre in the Russian style, and one of the few adults that was there, an older lady still clearly under the sway of the Chairman, hollered: "At last a Red play in the Red theatre!!" We took that as a compliment . . .

ES: Who would you ideally want to be in the audience at your performances?

PB: Hopefully our work attracts a younger set into the theatre to sit alongside the die-hard theatre goers. It would be nice to increase that . . . ideally it'd be a real mixture. 

Following two sell-out runs at the National theatre, 1927 returns to the Lyttelton for a further six performances from 23 – 26 May. Tickets here.