CATS

Walking into a theatre and being surrounded by “cats” can be quite daunting, especially when they are played by young actors who sit there and stare at you as a cat would not saying a word. This was the first time I had seen this show and it was brilliant, the set looked like a total tip with old tyres, car parts, a satellite dish and an old microwave to complete it, and it all worked, the cats were able to weave their way in and out of the tyres and through the labyrinth of items on this stock pile. All the cats had their own characters which were very different from each other and were headed by Old Deuteronomy played by George Akid. He watched over the whole proceedings and it was evident he was re-living his past through them, he became excited at their antics and dances and was able to keep his character all the way through the story. Of course the most famous song in this show is “Memories” which was performed by Grizabella played to perfection by Abbi Ellison. She was excellent and was again able to slink around the set whilst looking out for the other cats that had not been too kind to her initially. The song had a reprise towards the end again sung by Abbi who was joined by Mongo Jerrie played impishly by Ellie Cooper. Also she had earlier been joined by her twin in this show Rumpleteazer played by Ffion Tandy, they sang an impish song about their names and the antics they would get up to whilst playing around the site. Thomas White made a welcome return to play Rumtumtugger who sang and danced his way through the whole piece maintaining his feline character throughout. One song I had never heard before was about a cat called Gus who was very poorly, this was such a heart rending song and sung with such feeling I would suspect there would be very few dry eyes in the house. The part of Gus was played with so much feeling by William Batty it was hard to know if he was acting or if he really was hurting and in so much pain as he portrayed. As I have said this was the first time I had seen this show and I hope it is not the last, it has whetted my appetite to see it again, I just hope the next time lives up to this one.

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