The Animals and Children Took to the Streets, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre

In a UK tour stretching from October all the way to March, 1927 theatre company is reviving its smash hit show The Animals and Children took to the Streets. The show has been hugely popular, beginning with its premiere in Sydney in 2010, followed by four sell-out, critically acclaimed London seasons (including three at the National Theatre), and a global tour which saw the show visit 28 countries.

The Animals and Children took to the Streets tells the story of the Bayou Mansions, a run-down tenement block in Bayou, a neglected area on the edge of a big city. Curtain-twitchers and peeping toms live side-by-side and the wolf is always at the door. When Agnes Eaves and her daughter arrive late one night, does it signal hope in this hopeless place, or has the real horror only just begun? The spectacular combination of story-telling and animation is set to live music and performed by just three exuberant actors (each of whom also plays a part in the design and production).

Devised in a Hackney warehouse, the show reflects the culture clash that writer and director Suzanne Andrade witnessed around her. After its explosive popularity in the winter of 2011, countless comparisons with that summer’s riots ensued. This sense of zeitgeist, as youth rises up to revolt against the rich, bellowing ‘We want what you have out there’, has resonated wherever 1927 has taken the show, including in the Middle East in the wake of the Arab Spring. 1927 Executive Producer Jo Crowley describes the show as 'a universal fable of revolution, anarchy, social mobility and suppression that we think is as relevant now as it was eight years ago.'

In 2018, The Animals and Children took to the Streets will open on the company’s home-turf in Margate before touring internationally and visiting Brighton for a month-long festive residency at The Old Market this Christmas and culminating in a month-long run in London at the Lyric Hammersmith next year.With a dystopic charm that feels like dark avant-garde art mixed with a Jack London novel, the show oozes an originality that will captivate kids and parents alike.