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    Theatre Review: The Cat in the Hat

    Krystyn Norriw (Sally) and Japheal Bondurant (Cat) performs in CATCO is Kids! upcoming production of The Cat in the Hat Jan. 17-26 at the Vern Riffe Center Studio One Theatre, 77 S. High St. Visit www.catcoistheatre.org for more information. Photos by David Alkire.

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    CATCO is Kids’ newest production The Cat in the Hat instills an audience excitement that surpasses other shows they previously produced. For one thing, the moment we enter Studio One, we witness a massive and accurate page from the famed book as a set. The space fills with families ready to hear and see the story that most hold dear to them. Perhaps the principal reason for the audience’s energy stems from the fact that nearly every person seeing the show grew up with the titular tricky cat.

    First published in 1957, Dr. Seuss wrote the book in attempts to eradicate the world of traditional primers. He felt children could learn reading through more interesting stories with more mischievous characters than the clean-cut Dick and Jane types. This short story of the cat who teaches Sally and her brother a few tricks and games on a rainy day, and subsequently makes a mess, stayed with generations, inciting a love of words at a young age and ensuring a place in many people’s hearts.

    Edith Dinger Wadkins shows her skills as a painter and a designer with a flawless set that emulates a page straight from the book. Marcia Hain creates costumes that aptly accomplish this as well, right down to the minutia of Thing 1 and Thing 2. Kudos to both of these designers as well as director Joe Bishara for creating a visually interesting show that can captivate the shortest of attention spans.

    Japheal Bondurant gives a charming and ever-so-subtly creepy performance as the Cat (which, to be fair, even as a child I found the Cat creepy, so it worked well and is a compliment from my perspective). He gives a high energy and entertaining performance, as does Emily Turner the puppeteer behind the nay-saying Fish. The show also features four child actors:  Krystyn Norris and Kelan Huffman as Sally and the Boy, and Olivia Poling and Grace Burkhart as Thing 1 and Thing 2. All four give excellent performances full of energy.

    This show exquisitely integrates sound (designed by Keya Myers-Alkire) and lighting (Doug Northeim) into the story to create a truly engaging and ride-like experience for the audience. Music floats in and out to heighten the comedy of many moments and the lighting adds much flavor to the show. Overall, the design of all elements for this show seems quite good and raises the bar.

    For those looking for distractions pre-show, the Columbus Metropolitan Library provides a book cart with Dr. Seuss titles, allowing for some quality reading time before or after the performance. Also, CML and CATCO made a partnership which provides people with a library card a 10% discount on any CATCO show this season. Look into that; it seems really cool.

    Honestly, I find The Cat in the Hat one of the most generally entertaining shows I’ve seen in a while. At only twenty-five minutes in length, I think absolutely everyone can enjoy this production.

    The Cat in the Hat plays until Jan. 26, in Studio One of the Vern Riffe Center, 77 S. High Street. Sat & Sun. at 1 pm and 2:30 pm; Sat., Jan. 25 at 4 pm. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children.

    More information can be found online at www.catcoistheatre.org.

    Photos by Dave Alkire.

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    Lisa Much
    Lisa Much
    Lisa Much is a recent transplant to Columbus as of June. She comes from Chicago having freelanced as a stage manager and prop designer. She holds a BA in Sustainable Theater from Green Mountain College in Vermont.
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