I was full of hope and excitement to watch Roots at Home theatre Mcr on election day because I am a huge fan of 1927's previous work. The company have been making their own kind of theatre for over 10 years and have, with this show; Roots, begun to blossom into adolescence. 1927 are maturing, in an ever-so-silly way, they are growing into their teenage spots fantastically.
Roots is an exploration of folk stories told in the unique and crackpot style of 1927. Using live music, animation, live action and pre-recorded stories we delve into the weird and wonderful storytelling of writer and director Suzanne Andrade. As a new mother the idea of exploring folk tales really struck a cord with me, I have been listening to old nursery rhymes from my childhood on repeat recently and pondering my own roots. Roots allows us to explore storytelling in a unusual but familiar manner.
Andrade speaks of the Aarne index; a big book of thousands of folk-tales, categorised and numbered – a folklorist's dream Christmas present. She said the book was the basis for her research into the folk-tale world, she picked out a few of the tales and based on the description or title she wrote her own 'short terse story'. These stories were then banded around and the ones they liked made it onto the "maybe pile". Alongside animator, Paul Barritt and Co-director Esme Appleton the stories were then sprinkled with 1927 magic dust.
That dust's main and most noted component being their trademark drawn and animated backdrops with which the performers interact. Usually their projected animated images lend themselves to film noir style. And whilst this familiar black and white style was definably present in most of the tales, I also noticed a blend of the Japanese Anime in one particular fishy tale of greed, as well as a sprinkle of colour in others. 1927 know what works for their middle class audiences but they're not afraid to subtly try new avenues either.
Live music accompanies the action and as is discussed in the director's note the company had decided to move away from the 'wonderful but rather static piano' that also lends itself to early black and white film. David Insua-Cao and Francesca Simmons bring magic dust in the way of strange and superb instruments, some of which I couldn't make out, but I was fascinated watching them playfully react to the live action. Apparently the duo made an immediate impression in their audition, playing coca cola bottles, a donkey's jaw and a nose flute amongst other things.
But the special ingredient in the 1927 magic dust this time was the decision to use friends and families to voice the pre-recorded stories. 'The luckless man' narrated by Nigel, an ex-steel worker turned councillor from Wales, fitted just perfectly, his Welsh lull sat well, it felt complete and sincere.
Mostly I enjoyed the collection of 11 stories, which contained characters from a fat cat to a snake to a pompous king and a very picky ant who found a penny, because they had little or no common theme or moral throughout. 1927 didn't present a neat, pretty assembling of fairy-tales, they didn't attempt to save the day they simply presented these stories to us and on a miserable day like today, it was most welcomed.
Reviewer - Cathy Shiel
on - 12/12/19
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