Cheshire Cats

This is not a well-known play but, having read about it online, it very much appealed to me. The story follows five women from Cheshire who decide to do the London Moon Walk to raise money for breast cancer charities, revealing what doing the walk means to them along the way.

The stars of this show are very much the five leading ladies.  They all had excellent Cheshire accents and managed to showcase the differences in each character. Unusually, each monologue is written in verse with, what appears to be, a chorus. One wonders whether the writer is hoping that Cheshire Cats is one day turned into a musical. However they were all performed well by the five leading ladies; the most successful being those who ignored the rhyme and spoke as if it were just dialogue.  On the whole I would say the poignant moments in the play worked better than the comedy, as there was not quite enough ‘pace’ for the big laughs.

The Aerobics Instructor was hilarious.  She worked her socks off trying to get the audience to join in with her mad warm up exercises and, although they were reticent on the evening I came, I hope she managed to get them on their feet during other performances.

The simple set of a screen at the back with projected images and a few simple pieces of furniture worked very well. The lighting was good, although a little slow to come up after scene changes on some occasions.  Costumes and makeup were all in keeping and worked well, especially the race clothes of ‘Cats eye’ Basques and bras and leg warmers, which looked great.

All in all this was a very enjoyable night’s entertainment, with every cast member doing exactly what was expected of them.
 

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