Cat and Mouse - by VarsityDrama

Watched Cat and Mouse by VarsityDrama last night at UCC. Play was written by Robert Teague, Jr. Think they bought the script, not unlike us buying scores. I don't watch plays often, so I'm not sure what to look out for, neither is there much material for me to compare against.

I found it a bold play though, by asian standards. There was kissing on stage. Not just a peck on the cheek or the lips, but full-fledged french kissing with lots of sound and movement and in one scene, male on top of female. Throughout, I could not help wondering if the male actor ever got aroused, but I suppose not. Students as they are, it is highly likely that they are professional enough to take things seriously. Anyway the male character, Earl, has so many lines that I'm sure he needs to concentrate on those rather than anything else.

Personally found the play confusing. I left the place wondering if there was a "moral theme" behind it, or any sort of theme at all. Mostly, Earl's lines were long and though they were probably essential for portraying his character, it bored me greatly.

Cat and Mouse is centered on Jamie - a girl living in a small apartment in New York, Carrie - Jamie's anal-retentive roommate, Earl - the man Jamie brings home from a wine bar who is a self-styled performance artist, wandering philosopher, declared celibate, but mostly a housecat, as well as Michael - Jamie's ex-boyfriend.

Jamie seems to portray a stereotypical image of a girl in NY who goes to work, goes to club/pubs/whatever and then have one-night-stands. So she brings home Earl one day and things start to go wrong from there. Or maybe it does not. Jamie is infatuated with Earl, Carrie thinks that Earl is controlling Jamie by the leash. Carrie gets mad with Jamie for bring Earl home because "he is choking the life out" of both of them, but we have the impression that Jamie and Carrie's is a strong friendship and Carrie is a nice, sweet girl. Until Michael showed up one day asking for his underwear. And as the story unfolds, we finally see that Carrie isn't the nice, sweet girl, but who has slept with every one of Jamie's ex-boyfriends living with them, though for what reason we don't quite know. Things break down when Jamie caught Carrie making-out/having sex (I don't know which because they only showed the making-out part) with Earl in the living room after a party in the house. Reason? Carrie was pissed off with Jamie and Earl for ruining the sanctity of the house by inviting jerks and assholes in for the party, one of whom even forced himself onto Jamie by turning up in her bed. There was a huge showdown at the end between Jamie, Carrie and Earl, which ended with Jamie asking Carrie to move out and Earl telling Jamie that he is but a housecat, who pleases whoever needs him and who wanders around and needs its freedom, asks her to let him out of the house. He agitates Jamie so much that we thought he would have won, that Jamie would have opened the door for him. There is a twist, Jamie seems to have suddenly awoken and her mind kinds of takes on a thwarted view of what she could do. Instead of letting him off, she decides to "keep" him, taking away his freedom simply by saying no to his asking to be let out. She declares them as partners and the scene ends with Earl sitting on the floor with his head in Jamie's lap as he says meow.

As an amateur group, I think it's a job well done with excellent delivery of lines and expressions by the actors. However, there were some sections supposedly nerve-wrecking, silent-inducing or to bring across an important point, which didn't quite turn out that way.

It was alright, I guess, though a little boring and I was glad it finally ended because I could finally get my aching butt off the chair.