BrumHour was invited to the press night of the Cat in the Hat by Birmingham Rep.
By Dave Massey twitter.com/BrumHour
The Cat in the Hat at Birmingham Rep
Adapted and originally directed by Katie Mitchell. Directed by Suba Das.
Under normal circumstances you’d probably not let strangers into your house, particularly if you are two children left home alone whilst mother is out, you’d especially not let a talking, singing, dancing six-foot cat with a crazy hat into your house.
The Cat in the Hat is at Birmingham Rep until Sunday 3rd March and is aimed at those aged between 3 and 10 years old who are willing to sit for two 35 minute halves to this entertaining show.
The Boy (Sam Angell) and his sister Sally (Melissa Lowe) are bored at home on one rainy day. After firing super soaker water pistols into the audience they eventually decide to pick up the book of The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss. Their words seem to come to life when the Cat (Nana Amoo-Gottfried) appears at their door, and their fish (Charley Magalit) seems to become a singing princess in a big bubble. The cast is rounded out by Celia Francis and Robert Penny as Thing 1 and Thing 2 who the Cat brings in a box to also invade the children’s house.
This was a fun, bright, cheeky and charming production with the hyperactive, chaos of the books alive on stage. From flashing lights, to acrobatics and physical theatre the audience loved the crazy cat and his friends. But they also loved the two main children, if you have loud cheeky kids then this is probably the show for you.
The audience was encouraged to shout out, stand up in their seats and jump around to help the characters along in the story.
The great set is features lots of hidden doors, magical lighting and fun animation on the large plasma screens.
Tonight’s show was paused after ten minutes when a glass jar shattered on the stage and audience only seemed to get more excited whilst the scene was reset. The actors even made reference to the incident and the audience were quickly absorbed back into the story.
It’s been over 30 years since I last read The Cat in the Hat and as I watched the story and the drawings from the books came flooding back into my head. Especially when Sally was upside down reading her books.
An ideal trip to the theatre for primary aged children, The Cat in the Hat is at Birmingham Rep until 3rd March. Book tickets here: birmingham-rep.co.uk/whats-on/the-cat-in-the-hat-1
This isn’t a sponsored post.
When not blogging theatre for #BrumHour, Dave Massey can be found eating crisps and claiming to be at the gym. And tweeting about Birmingham.
