1927 is a multi-award winning Margate and London based theatre company that specialises in brilliant blends of animation and live performance. Since being founded in 2005, they have toured to 35 countries over 5 continents and have garnered multiple awards, not least following appearances at the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe, for their unique theatrical spectacles.
In 2019 they performed their piece Roots, a series of fascinatingly bizarre and rarely told folk tales that are brought to magical life by the singular talents of 1927. Roots was at Church Hill Theatre where they charmed and mesmerised with their trademark style as the strange and quirky tales unfolded to visual delight.
This year was to see Roots touring the world but of course, that’s been cancelled. Some of the tales in Roots come from the work of Italian writer Giovanni Bocaccio who wrote The Decameron in response to the bubonic plague in 1348 and whose plots were borrowed from worldwide ancient tales. In The Decameron, ten writers shelter from the plague near Florence and tell ten tales a night during quarantine.
Rather than let the tales be forgotten, the artistic team at 1927 has teamed up with some sound experts to transform the tales in to 3 episodes entitled Decameron Nights that will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 under the series The Essay from Monday 10 to Wednesday 12 August at 10.45pm.
Episode 1: I’m All Right Jack
Episode 2: Heartstrings
Episode 3: Lady Luck
Decameron Nights is a 1927 production for BBC Culture in Quarantine with the support of Arts Council England and BBC Arts.
Irene Brown
Radio Summerhall Arts 