ABOUT 1927
Founded in 2005 by animator & illustrator Paul Barritt, and writer & performer Suzanne Andrade, 1927 truly came together when the tremendously talented performer Esme Appleton joined them, suggesting that the pair merged animation and live performance to see what might happen...but something was missing...enter Lillian Henley, composer and pianist. A decade on 1927 are still experimenting with what happens when performance, live music with animation come together...
Having cut its teeth on the London cabaret scene, in 2007, 1927 premiered its debut show Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, unexpectedly winning a whopping 5 awards.
Offers of international touring came flooding in, and 1927, lost at sea when it came to being offered more than £50 to play down the local working man's club, enlisted the help of Producer Jo Crowley. In the 3 years that followed, the show was presented over 2 sell-out London seasons, toured throughout the UK and internationally, being awarded the Peter Brook Empty Space Award for Best Ensemble along the way. Jo became a permanent and essential fixture.
In 2010 1927 premiered their "difficult second album" show The Animals and Children took to the Streets at the Sydney Opera House. Despite the company fearing the show would be a flop, hated far and wide, the show was presented over 400 times in 80 venues across 28 countries including 3 seasons at the National Theatre London. It also won an OFFIE Award for Best Entertainment (which Paul Barritt left in a taxi, never to be seen again...).
In 2012, 1927 collaborated with Komische Opera Berlin, to conceive and create a reimagining of The Magic Flute. Since its Berlin premiere, the show has won 2 Opera World Awards, continues to play in repertoire, 6 new productions have been mounted thus far at Los Angeles Opera, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Minnesota Opera, Polish National Opera, Finnish National Opera and Teatro Real Madrid and the original Berlin production regular tours across the world!
1927’s third show - Golem, a 1927 co-production with Salzburg Festival, Théâtre de la Ville Paris & Young Vic Theatre had its world premiere at the Salzburg Festival in August 2014. In 2014, 1927 also presented Paul Barritt’s short film White Morning, at Sundance, Florida, and the London Short Film Festival and Paul collaborated with Ensemble MusikFabrik to create A Tribute to Krazy Kat, a live music and animation performance, which premiered in Dresden in October.
In 2017, 1927 premiered a re-imagined double bill of Ravel's opera L'Enfant et les Sortileges and Stravinsky's ballet Petrushka re-imagined as a heddy mix of circus, animation and a live orchestra, at Komische Oper Berlin and Deutsche Oper am Rhein.
ROOTS, had it’s world premiere in May 2019 at Spoleto Festival USA and European premiere in at Edinburgh International Festival in August 2019 followed by touring across the UK and to Australia, Tunisia and Chile. 1927 is in the early stages of developing a large-scale theatre show for premiere in 2022.
This August 1927’s Decameron Nights - a collection of macabre folktales will premiere on BBC Radtio 3.
Alongside creating and touring productions, 1927 delivers Creative Learning. Artist Support and Digital creation activities delivered in collaboration with partners across its UK and international programmes .
1927 are based in Margate and London, are an Associate Company of the Roundhouse London and HOME Manchester and became an Arts Council England's National Portfolio in 2018.
People
Suzanne Andrade: Co-Artistic Director
Paul Barritt: Co-Artistic Director
Esme Appleton: Associate Artistic Director
Lillian Henley: Associate Artist Composer
Derek Andrade: Associate Animation Artist
Jo Crowley: Executive Producer
Natalie Ross: General Manager
Awards for 1927
Winner Total Theatre Award 2007
Winner Herald Angel Award 2007
Winner Fringe First Award 2007
Winner Glasgow Arches Brick Award 2007
Winner Carol Tambor Award 2007
Winner The Peter Brook Empty Space/Equity Ensemble Award 2008
Winner OFFIE Best Entertainment Award 2011
Winner Best Theatre Production Clonmel Festival 2013
Winner Best Design Opera World Awards 2013
Winner Critics Circle Award for Design 2015
Winner Knights of Illumination Award for Projection 2015
Winner Helpmann Award 2019
Winner Herald Angel Award 2019
1927 has also been nominated for Southbank Show, The Stage, New York Drama Desk, Melbourne Green Room, London Evening Standard and Helen Hayes Awards.
What the Press say about 1927
‘It is almost impossible to impart in word the magic of 1927 show. A thrilling combination of animation, live performance, theatre and music…shows are dark and fruity, wildly inventive, fiendishly skilled and with a great sense of joy and purity’ The Telegraph
'Anyone interested in the theatre should see this company now’ The Observer
‘1927 stand as one of the UK's most exciting young companies, festooned in acclaim, their upward trajectory as yet unchecked.’ Time Out London
‘1927 has a singular talent. Their star is on the ascendant and there is nothing quite like them.' The Times
‘I can’t begin to capture the enchantment, the joy, the attention to seizing drama of watching this company in action.’ Herald Sun (Australia)
‘It’s a rare treat for a theatre lover to discover a show that’s quite like anything she’s experienced before and adore it unreservedly from the start. Such was the glorious sensation that company 1927 gave me, with its outstanding blend of animation, original music and quirky storytelling in 70 nigh on perfect minutes’ The Evening Standard
‘1927's trademark is the technically brilliant use of live action and music combined with superbly drawn and animated film to create shows that combine vintage cultural nostalgia with a sharp, beady-eyed sense of postmodern alienation.’ Scotsman
‘1927 conjure a world so complete it feels as if you've fallen down a rabbit hole.’ Guardian
‘so distinctive and so original, so good-natured and so lacking in pretension, it defies the typical anxieties of influence and is only the glimpse of a truly transcendent talent on its way to a big-time audience.’ Charleston City Paper (USA)
WHERE WE'VE PERFORMED
‘Since 2007, 1927 has presented it’s live work in 118 venues & festivals in 35 countries across 5 continents. Click here to see where we’ve performed.’