The Animals and the Children Took the Streets Review

        What a great show to start the trip with! The Animals and the Children took to the Streets was a dark comedy with upbeat tempos and quirky down on their luck characters. It was unique piece of theatre that rather tickled my fancy. More than likely one reason I found the play so much fun was it was less like theatre and more like a moving and breathing illustration. For the most part the play was an animated cartoon with a couple human characters. The entirety of the play worked with projections on three flat white panels with which the actors seamlessly played along. It was just so fun.

            The story followed the lives of three main characters, Zelda the sketchy shopkeeper’s daughter and head of the children’s gang, the landlord of the tenement block, and Agnes, an outsider working to fix the problems of the Bayou. These characters as well as all other characters in the piece were played by the three actresses of the 1927’s company. I was greatly impressed to see them switch from role to role. While I knew the same actress was playing two different characters it didn’t seem to bother me because they did it so convincingly. What really aided the transition was the simple yet eerie white makeup that each character wore.

            The makeup and costume design for this show was great. For the most part the costumes were either red white or black sticking with the color scheme of the projections. The flat white makeup really helped the actors blend more easily with the projections that they were playing along with without hindering the actor’s facial movements. It all painted quite a unified scene. In the end it seemed only natural that these actors lived in this two dimensional world.

            Another key aspect that made the aspect work was the actors’ skill and timing with the projections. I can’t imagine how many rehearsals it must have taken, but the actors timing was dead on.  Even small moments such as sweeping with the broom and having the animated dust puff up had to take such enormous amounts of concentration and timing. While I didn’t realize it while watching the play I later came to understand that one of the character’s voices was entirely pre-recorded. It only made me appreciate the acting and the actors’ sense of timing even more.

            While lots of the play were pre-recorded the work still didn’t lose that live theatre element as all the musical numbers were sung live and one of the company’s members played on the piano throughout the entire play dressed as one of the residents of the Bayou. She even interacted with other’s characters. I really enjoyed that the “orchestra” was so integrated on stage instead of hidden away. It was a true nod to her musical genius as she was also the writer and composer of all the songs in the play.

            Overall I really just felt that while the story was dim and bleak, the quirk and wit of the writing and the cast really made The Animals and Children took to the streets a smashing success!