Mog the Forgetful Cat will be playing at Underbelly’s McEwan Hall at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival until August 27th.
The Wardrobe Ensemble return to the fringe with this lovely adaptation of the much cherished Judith Kerr children’s book. You could be forgiven for thinking that this is a departure from their usual material but they have an impressive body of shows for younger audiences that sits alongside their excellent adult shows.
The production is closing out its national tour with a run at the beautiful McEwan Hall, which is one of the biggest stages at the festival and is always a challenge to use well for theatre productions. There is nothing to fear here though, as the production values, set and costumes are excellent. The cast slickly move the scenery to create new spaces and the little touches that can take us from a garden, to the lounge, to a street or the (say it one letter at a time please…) V E T, with wonderful creativity and precision.
Mog the Forgetful Cat herself is a joy. Following a lively warm-up from our narrator Mr. Bunce, we meet the forgetful feline who, without a single word in the show, conveys her emotions and intentions with such clarity that we are always rooting for her, even when she does the kind of things that make the family say “bother that cat!”.
The family too are excellent, from the grumpy dad to the excitable kids and many multi-roles in between, the way they sing, pick up cues and play with each other on stage is indicative of a company who have been together a long time and who trust and nurture each other to their best performances. It is also underscored live on stage brilliantly by the multi-talented Max Gallagher. To pull all of these threads together requires excellent direction too, which they clearly have.
My 8-year-old daughter was enthralled throughout. Mog the Forgetful Cat is a great kids show, super slick and excellently performed.
