The stage is ready with a treadmill, yoga mat, step-up field and an enormous silver train ball for Frankie Thompson’s Catts. An acceptable assortment for a richly bodily present. As Thompson enters, there are hints of the feline: a T-shirt adorned with threads of wool, a hair-do harking back to little cat ears. A highlight flashes into life, earlier than disappearing and rising elsewhere, and Thompson begins an amusing chase – a cat looking for a sliver of daylight?
Thompson fiddles with a retro VCR and Jane Fonda’s Authentic Exercise sparkles on to a display screen. “I’m attempting to work out how you can cope,” she tentatively tells the group.
Earlier than she will get going, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats interrupts. With modifying harking back to a household VHS that’s been taped over too many occasions, the present weaves collectively feline references from disparate origins – Postman Pat, The Aristocats, Don’t Inform the Bride, Antiques Roadshow.
Thompson flits between manic exercise and managed lip-syncing of the characters on our journey, her brilliantly expressive face bringing the audio to life. A haughty but terrified Apprentice contestant desperately attempting to flog a cat-themed calendar is a standout, her dance to the ominous theme tune bringing massive laughs. Her interpretation of The Simpsons’ Loopy Cat Girl is a beautiful, foolish interlude, sending the viewers ducking as cats fly across the room. Many within the viewers are singled out for intense eye contact, Thompson holding gazes to the hilarious excessive.
Beneath the enjoyable and silliness, we’re invited to consider stress, being overwhelmed and turning into comfy inside your personal head. Often, the music stops and the lights come up. “It’s simply me now,” Thompson says, all of the sudden unsure. She artfully escalates her feline qualities, stalking the stage, even taking a really humorous flip in a litter field. We peak with an operatic homage to cats.
Thompson is a magnetic performer, her clownish physicality a pleasure to look at. What's a “loopy cat woman”, anyway? Perhaps all of us want a cat of our personal to assist us really feel a little bit bit much less loopy.
At Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, till 28 August.
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