Cat & Mouse

One of New Zealand’s most prolific theatre companies, Fingerprints & Teeth Productions, is taking over Darlinghurst’s Tap Gallery in July with a new production, Cat and Mouse, written by Thomas Sainsbury, four-time winner of the NZ Young Playwright’s Competition.

Roberto works in a bar and meets multitudes of women but nothing can prepare him for Cat, who’s drunk, desperate and on a failed date. He takes her number through pity and sleeps with her out of lust.

A week later he meets Cleo. She’s confident, indifferent, independent — everything Roberto desires.

The only problem is Cat and Cleo look, sound … and smell … the same, yet assure him they’re different people.

As Roberto juggles two passionate affairs with what may be the same woman, he’s about to learn that the game has changed for good — a game that someone has to lose.

Of the new play, director Trent Atkinson says: “The risk with producing ‘smaller’ theatre is that it can tend to think small. What I like about Cat and Mouse is that it explores ideas that are profound in their implications, albeit in a simple way: what would you do if you fell in love with two extremely different people, who look and feel the same?

“With this production, we have two incredible actors playing three characters. They are surrounded by a pared-down set that slowly becomes cluttered, much in the way our protagonist’s memories gradually weigh him down. The fluidity, comedy and pace of the piece give it a modern feel, but the issue at its heart is elemental. Do we ever totally recover from a broken heart?”

Trent has brought together two of New Zealand’s hottest young theatre and TV performers, Stephen Fitzgibbon (The Ten Steps, Honeymooners, Loser, LUV) and Hannah Marshall (All Saints, Shortland St, Diplomatic Immunity, Loser, LUV).

Cat and Mouse runs at TAP Gallery Theatre 21 July to 2 August. It is Sainsbury’s 19th production. At just 26, he has already penned some of New Zealand’s most highly acclaimed plays. Previous works include The Basement, Luv, Loser, Main Street, Gas, The Mall, The Feminine, Beast and Caustic.

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