Its inspiration comes from the Aarne index of folk tales, held in the British Library, which is a collection of thousands of ancient folk tales from all corners of the globe, with universal themes such as greed, love and magic that connect us all.

It opens and closes with the story of a murderously greedy cat, who eats not only its mistress but heaven, hell and mother earth herself. There follows what writer and director Suzanne Andrade describes as a ‘rag tag collection of folk jokes and stories’, all told with 1927’s inventive mix of Paul Barritt’s animation, performance and live music.

If you’ve seen the company before you will be familiar with Lillian Henley’s accompanying vaudeville style piano and song, which gives the production a feel of mixing mime with silent movie screenings. This time, a musician at either side of the stage plays a range of instruments – some instantly recognisable like a violin and glockenspiel while others add to the fascination of the overall quirkiness of the show, such as a donkey’s jaw, Peruvian prayer boxes and musical saws.

Recorded narration by friends and family, who are not trained actors, adds another layer – for example, The Luckless Man who is fated to be unlucky, is narrated by Nigel an ex steel worker turned councillor from North Talbot in Wales.

Over the course of an hour or so we hear of a king who puts his bride through many trials to test her fidelity; a man who shares his flat with poverty, and an unremarkable character who squanders wishes on meat pie and ale, with contemporary reference to the US presidency.

Each tale is told with a delicious dose of dark humour, giving us all the darkness of a fairy tale without the happy ending. Some, such as Two Fish, have a moral of sorts. It tells of a fishing family who catch three fish every day. One day the parents decide to drown their child so that they can eat more than one fish a day each. After the child’s death the pair only ever catch two fish a day.

The story ends here and for the most part there is no clear direction from the company of which way to think. This openness has both its up and downsides for the show. Its lack of an overarching narrative and structure mean it doesn’t have the same impact of the previous shows from 1927 we’ve seen at Home. But as a whimsical escape over the festive season, this alternative Christmas show is a winner.

Roots – stories from a simpler time from 1927 is at Home, Manchester from 11-30 December 2019.

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First seen in 2010, ‘The Animals and Children Took to the Streets’ still feels wonderfully innovative, fresh and socially relevant. Few companies have embraced multi-media as fully. Here performers interact with animated characters; scenes are set by Paul Barritt’s film and animation as if bringing to life the pages of a vivid graphic novel; characters appear as mime artists, with white painted faces, while another actor’s recorded voice narrates their thoughts; and it is all accompanied by Lillian Henley’s vaudeville style piano and song.

The focus of this quirky, silent movie-esque world is Bayou, a run-down area on the outskirts of town that even its most long-standing residents admit is a ‘s**t hole.’ Why don’t they move? Well, the moto here is ‘live in the Bayou, die in the Bayou.’ But is it true?

Three performers – Felicity Sparks, Genevieve Dunne and Rowena Lennon –take on a variety of roles alongside both colourfully animated and shadowy figures, making up the residents of the community’s Bayou Mansions.

What sounds a grand address is a hellish, grey tenement block crawling with cockroaches. And these hardy creatures are not the worst of life living inside its concrete walls.

Bayou Mansions is home to various criminals, perverts, and Wayne the racist with his eight racist children who seems to terrorise anyone, regardless of race, who is not part of his clan.

Into this unsavoury mix arrives the gentle Agnes Eaves and her daughter, Evie Eaves. But when she knocks on neighbour’s doors she gets no answer. The wolf is never far from the door here, hence the common past-time of peeping through curtains and listening through walls.

Some residents dream of escaping but, even when they do venture out, the world is an unfathomable place. Welcome to the age of process and no common sense – where the loneliest man in the world can’t enjoy his free cinema voucher because the small print says the voucher is for two.

A world where it costs 7 years savings to make a spontaneous rail journey, i.e. without a 14-day advanced fare. Helplines that are an endless loop of automated bots and recorded music. Solicitors who literally take blood for their advice; and hospitals where doctors are replaced by St John’s Ambulance volunteers and Girl Guides. 

oDIt is a world we both laugh at an abhor, and yet, just as we can read the jumbled, back-to-front letters in Bayou’s signage, we can also see the razor-sharp comment on our own society. And this is where these painted clowns hit us hard.

In bringing to life the Bayou, 1927 has created a fantastical world that quickly draws us in, and strangely leaves us questioning our own society in a depth realism would find hard to penetrate. 

The Animals and Children Took to the Streets from 1927 is at HOME, Manchester from 6-16 February 2019.

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