1927 isn’t just a date, it’s also a theatre company (drawing influence from the visual power of silent, Expressionist movies, which might just put their choice of name in perspective.) Based in Margate (but with a burgeoning international reputation) they specialise in performing mixed media live animation theatre. If it’s difficult to get your head round the possibilities this opens up, look them up on YouTube (avoiding the similarly named Australian rock band – you want 1927 Theatre Company) to find an assortment of trailers demonstrating their dynamic, witty and inventive techniques. It was no surprise to learn that Please Right Back had enjoyed great success at the Edinburgh Festival before beginning this national tour, as it employs a style like no other. Four actors play out a story in which the power of the imagination comes to the fore when the correspondence between an imprisoned father and his children spins out a wild fantasy rather than submitting to the restrictions of a leaden truth, while their mother stands firm against the soul-deadening limitations of enforced conformity. One of the children is played by a cartoon figure who interacts happily with the live performers as projected backgrounds change and travel to places possible and impossible, providing a constantly shifting context where design and effects remove the barrier between what you see and what you imagine. My only hesitation was in wondering whether the entry-level social realism of this modern story really did justice to the evocations the spectacular method calls up. I couldn’t help thinking that past productions such as The Golem and The Magic Flute might have worked better as vehicles of Gothic Fantasy rather than the well-meaning worthiness of this fable of contemporary urban life.

Gail-Nina Anderson