AMATEUR THEATRE REVIEW: Cats - Theatr Clwyd, Mold.

'Cats' is, as I think most people are now aware thanks to the Marmite {"you either love it or you hate it"} film of recent years, a stage Musical with music by Andrew Lloyd-Webber using the poetry of TS Elliot's 'Old Possum's Book Of Practical Cats'. It is a musical that I know extrememly well and one that I have had a couple of professional brushes with in my younger - and lither! - days. 

In more recent times I have seen numerous amateur productions of the musical, all of which have been youth theatre shows; I had never, until this evening, seen it performed by adult amateurs. Tip Top Productions are based in Chester, and this evening's production of 'Cats', was different in many ways from previous incarnations of this show. Some of this worked for the ensemble, however, I feel that some didn't work perhaps as well as they were hoping it would.

My first point is their choice of costuming, make-up, and characterisations. In every other production I have thus far seen, we were shown cats with human qualities - ie anthropomorphising cats. The cast wore cat costumes, looked like cats, and their body language, gestures etc were all very cat-like. In this production they chose to turn this idea completely on its head. I don't mean zoomorphism, but I do mean that we were essentially watching humans pretending to be cats. No attempt at all was made to costume any of the characters in a cat-like costume other than wigs and face make-up, instead we were given costumes representing different jobs and fashion through the last few decades; and the face make-up sadly either looked like tigers on some, and others simply were not cat faces. The body language and gestures were not cat-like enough - and were more swishing and swaying than behaving in a feline manner. This made for some interesting characterisations - and whether or not they were what Lloyd-Webber had envisaged, didn't really matter; we simply had to buy-in to this premise and accept the show on these terms. Sam Eggin's Munkustrap therefore had a rather young John Cleeseness about him, whilst John Lindop's Old Deuternomy was reminiscent of Clive Dunn.   

My second reservation came with the set. The professional set of a rubbish heap (not available to amateurs) shows all the human debris to scale, the size a cat would see it. On stage this evening, there was a complete mixture of human scale, cat scale and a few things in between. The side of the house, balcony, steps, lampshade, picture frames, dustbin etc were all as we see them, whilst some tins, life belts, another dustbin lid, and other bits and pieces seemed to be somewhere in between perspectives, and a couple of large tyres which would definitely be a cat's perspective or even larger. It was a little strange. We understood the reasoning behind these odd items adorning the stage when they were used to build the train in Skimbleshanks; but seemed odd and somehow extraneous to the show otherwise. 

The lighting was a little hit-and-miss throughout too sadly. There were many times when principals were either dancing or singing in semi- or total darkness, which I feel sure would not have been deliberate. And on a more personal level, I felt that a few of the effects used didn't truly ameliorate the scene in the best way possible.

Another personal gripe was the lack of programme. using a QR code to dowload info onto a phone is absolutely no substitute, and if, like me, you do not own a modern i-phone, you are somewhat lost. Coming home and then accessing the company's website the following day for a cast list was the only option for me. Absolutely not ideal.

However, despite my above comments, the show was enjoyable, and the cast talented and committed. Some of the characterisations I enjoyed very much, especially Joel Merry's Rum Tum Tugger, Annie Howarth-Jones's Bombalurina, and, when I had accostomed myself to it, Sam Eggins's Munkostrap; although Bustopher Jones was simply not fat enough! The singing was of a very high standard, especially the choral singing. The harmonies in the opening sequence were lush, and Sophie Hygate's rendition of 'Memory' was stunning. The dancing too, was of a high standard, and mostly apt and fitting to the moment. The Beetle Tattoo tap dance was great, and the ballet sequence towards the end of act 1 was a highlight.

A high energy production featuring a talented cast and ensemble.

Reviewer - Alastair Zyggu
on - 16/3/22