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The
Cat’s Paw
Presented by:
Hoy
Polloy
Venue: Carlton Courthouse Theatre, Carlton
Reviewer:
Melanie Rowe
Date Reviewed:
Saturday 19th September 2009
The phrase Cat’s Paw comes from one of La Fontaine’s many fables;
regarding a monkey who uses a cat to pull chestnuts from a fire.
The poor kitty burns his paws whilst the monkey quickly gobbles the
chestnuts without sharing them – when one person is used by another
to accomplish their own selfish purposes, that person is referred to
as a cat’s paw.
In the case of Christine Croydon’s new play, The Cat’s Paw,
as performed by Hoy Polloy and directed by Wayne Pearn, the cat’s
paw in this case is prostitute, Brigid (Zoe Ellerton-Ashley),
who is ‘rescued’ from her dismal day to day life walking the streets
by Esther (Kylie Bell). Esther initially presents herself as
a good Samaritan but who we later discover has simply helped
Brigid trade the streets where she has been raped and beaten for
a luxury apartment in which she can ply the same trade in safer
surroundings. The story also follows Brigid’s two
housemates/fellow prostitutes, Abagail (Cecilia Condon) and
Monica (Emma Lyhne) who experience both a sort of jealousy
that Brigid has appeared to escape to such luxury and a
resentment that she has left them to drug addiction and abusive
johns. We also see the tale of Paul (Daniel Rice), a man who
has come to former cop turned private investigator, Esther to
find his missing wife but who is instead pushed into Brigid’s
arms to forget his troubles. Watching over all this is Angel
(Stephanie Lillis); it is unclear until Monica’s death and
rise to heaven that Angel is an actual Angel and not some mad
onlooker who babbles in appropriate bible versespeak.
I wasn’t sure how to view this piece as some actors played their
characters quite natural and others added almost a performance art
aspect to their portrayal – neither of which gelled with the other,
leaving me confused as to the style of the show. Zoe Ellerton-
Ashley’s Brigid did have some very nice natural moments and
Cecilia Condon’s Abagail was appropriately mouthy and brassy
but Daniel Rice’s first scene as Paul was so quickly spoken
that the rather important background exposition he was giving got
missed and I spent the next two scenes with him playing catch up.
Kylie Bell gave Esther’s body language a kind of stiffness
that you could attribute to her former life as a cop, but her
motives for becoming a pimp were unclear – money, sex, revenge,
anger at being ousted from the police force? One of my favourite
scenes was between Paul and Esther, as she told him of
her wish for it to snow in St Kilda and cover all the ugliness in
white, the two actors and characters finally connecting with each
other for a brief moment.
I quite liked the concept of having the Angel onstage to
begin with. She interjected a fresh viewpoint onto the initial scene
between Brigid and Esther with her clever ramblings,
but the relevance wore off quickly and she eventually seemed to be a
character from a different play. However, as the Angel,
Stephanie Lillis had the most distinct and committed body language
of the production, bending herself into strange angles and casting
dark brooding looks at the action below her, demanding the
audience’s attention with a commanding stage presence and booming
voice.
I went to this play expecting that I would be confronted about
prostitution and sex and the ugly side of life at that end of the
food chain – I don’t feel like I learned anything particularly new
but perhaps that’s more about what my expectations were and less
about what the author was aiming for. I felt some of the cat
references were slotted in unnecessarily – especially when it didn’t
appear that any of the prostitutes (or any of the characters at all
for that matter) had taken on any cat-like qualities, which might
have tied in nicely - a sense of prowling and toying with their
customers but ultimately being the ones with the burnt paws.
However, Hoy Polloy’s set was very impressive and easily my
favourite part of the production. The walls of the Carlton
Courthouse Theatre were covered in plastic sheeting, making the
audience feel like they were in a container box. I very much liked
that the girls made their home in another smaller box that only the
Angel could open for them from above; the imagery of being stuck in
a box within a box was nicely appropriate and contrasted nicely with
the idea that once you’re in that life, ‘boxed in’ if you will, it’s
very difficult to get out. My only criticism of the set was the use
of props that seemed to hamper the actors. In the girl’s ‘house’, a
too-long bench meant the actors had to inch their way past it,
breaking any naturalism in their movements and speech. A bulky set
piece that represented Brigid’s new apartment was set so
close to the edge of the raised section she was on, that you could
clearly see the actor thinking more about how to move around the
section without falling off, rather than on seducing the man
reluctant to have sex with her.
I applaud the sound design and operation in this production, it was
excellent the night I saw it, melding music and the sounds of St
Kilda seamlessly into the play without being intrusive. And kudos
to the costume design, especially that of Angel, I do love a
good tattered and battered winged costume and this one was excellent
and looked great in the well plotted lighting.
As the actors took their bows, I found a few too many story lines
left hanging (Paul’s wife, Esther’s motives, the
Angel) for my liking and that the at times too nice
portrayal of sex workers left me with little real sympathy for the
plights of any of the characters; even poor dead addict Monica.
With some added grit and realism, there might have been some lessons
learned, as it is I feel like I walked away from The Cat’s Paw with
no real new perspective and that it was an opportunity missed.
I do congratulate Hoy Polloy on their production values and for
giving their audience the opportunity to view a new Australian piece
– always important – and wish them luck for the rest of their
season.
Melanie Rowe can primarily be found onstage herself and has been
performing (her parents would say, both on and offstage) since she
was six. That’s longer than she cares to think. She primarily
sticks to straight theatre and is pleased to note she hasn’t had to
sing properly on stage in a long time; audiences around Australia
continue to breathe a sigh of relief. She’s directed once. It’s
harder than it looks. She loves community theatre of all forms and
applauds and celebrates everyone’s involvement.
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