British multimedia stage drama prepares for dark debut

Utilizing macabre cabaret-style live music, exquisite projection and animation, The Animals and Children Took to the Streets is an imaginative multimedia drama about an impoverished London neighborhood. Poised to captivate Beijing audiences when it makes its premiere at the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA) early next month, it wishfully arouses thoughts among audiences with its sharp, witty and dark-humored narration.

Created by theater company 1927, an award-winning British troupe whose name pays tribute to the year of the world's first the talking picture, The Jazz Singer, the fairy tale is set in the dark and neglected city slum the Bayou Mansions, abandoned by the authorities and loathed by its inhabitants. Whilst children wander streets wild like wolves and mastermind an uprising, the affectionate Anges Eaves and her daughter Evie - animated on screen - comes to the Red Herring Street hopefully to solve the plague of social problems rampant among the region's rebellious youth.

"My inspiration for the story came from living in London. There are areas that are extremely wealthy and areas stricken by extreme poverty," said writer, director and actress Suzanne Andrade. "There's no communication or interaction between the two at all, and I was struck by that everyday."

With a modern Gothic setting of surroundings scattered with dirt, grit and cockroaches, the drama has been likened to dark creations by filmmakers such as Fritz Lang - aka "The Master of Darkness" - Charles Dickens and Tim Burton.

With multimedia gadgets, the three performers - Andrade, Lillian Henley and Esme Appleton - perform with controlled poise and display skills of live interaction with projected animated scenes projected on three screens while darting about the stage, changing costumes with impeccable timing.

"One of the really important things about 1927's work is striking a balance between being funny and scary, dealing with very dark issues," said Andrade, whose 2007 debut drama Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea was a huge hit at the Edinburgh Festival. "We incorporate a lot of visual humor in the hope that the audience will think about what they are seeing. When in the theater, we just want them to be entertained and laugh."