by Diana Miranda
Death and The Cat, directed by Penny Gkritzapi, explores life’s final and inevitable end result – loss of life – wrapped with absurdist humour and a shocking quantity of coronary heart. Robert Emlyn Slater’s debut play offers life (paradoxically) to Death. What begins as a comedy filled with quirky characters slowly reveals itself as a deeper reflection on questions on what infinity means, and the way the ability of connection might floor our seek for which means inside the immeasurable.
We’re dropped into limbo, the place Death (Rowland Stirling) and his sharp-tongued, speaking cat Panther (Rosalie Evans), have spent eternity ushering souls into the afterlife. They go the time enjoying chess, sipping tea, and betting on the profiles of newcomers. But all the pieces shifts when Panther’s curiosity will get the higher of her. After sneaking a peek by way of an enigmatic door (an oddly mysterious different
past heaven and hell), she refuses to proceed the job and abandons his outdated good friend, very like a Jiminy Cricket on strike. Lonely and damage, Death embarks on a journey of redemption as he begins questioning his function in humanity’s destiny.
Stirling as Death is a powerful presence onstage, carrying the two-hour dramedy with ease. His portrayal of the Grim Reaper is each charismatic and layered, bringing humour and emotional depth to a personality who may simply have been a one-dimensional archetype. Determined to show he’s not a heartless, unquestioning soul-sucker, he begins small. He bargains a self-concerned man out of hell (Kieran Dobson), a lot to the annoyance of party-throwing, larger-than-life Satan (Lydia Cashman). Then, scaling it again a bit an excessive amount of, he tries to steer a murderous lady into heaven (Anya Sayadian), till a lofty, (im)affected person God (Kaneesha Watt) glides onstage to Beyoncé’s Halo.
Credit goes to a powerful ensemble, a few of them multi-rolling. Take the versatile Kathryn Bates, who transitions from a candy, terminally in poor health affected person to a spiky Welsh bartender. Lanre Damola’s deadpan aptitude brings within the laughs as hell’s guard with completely stretched pauses, in a priceless scene with Ludovic Jean-Francois’ quirky angel. Overall, the ensemble’s chemistry and spot-on timing preserve the power excessive.
Even if stage parts and transitions aren’t all the time watertight, this existential quest is a pleasure to look at. Slater’s writing succeeds in taking a handful of summary ideas and squeezing them right into a feel-good comedy; the script is peppered with intelligent strains that land seamlessly because of the forged’s spot-on supply. The pacing retains a wholesome rhythm, alternating between laughs and poignant beats. As such,
the themes of friendship and scruples (or the shortage of) underpinning the present land successfully.
In the tip, Death and The Cat is a feel-good comedy that manages to take summary ideas and switch them into one thing tangible, humorous, and transferring. It’s evening of snickers with a aspect of existential pondering.
Death and the Cat runs by way of 30 November.
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