Tabby McTat

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The Old Market, Hove, Thursday, December 13

MODERN classic is probably an overused description but Tabby McTat, the busker’s cat with a meow that is loud and strong, must surely rank up there with every other over-read Julia Donaldson book that holds a special place in the hearts and teddy collections of all 21st century children.

The stage play opens with Samuel Sprat, son of Tabby, wanting to tell us the epic and heroic adventure of his dad.

In order to do this, he needs some assistance and thankfully the other actors are planted in the audience ready to leap on stage.

During this scene, we’re introduced to the fundamental suspension of disbelief that is necessary for the play to work, that the actors are actually cats, but hey it worked for Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Which particular cat they are at any point in the play is highlighted for us by which particular hat they are wearing at any one time.

Confused? Well, yes.

It does actually work very well later on, but the initial kerfuffle – getting the actors on stage with their over-hyped acting-for-children squeals and twitches and then explaining how the whole thing is going to work – feels a little bit surreal.

Somehow like accidentally stumbling into the darker recesses of a Labour Party conference, where all the old union men are solely obsessed with logistics and process to the neglect of the end goal.

But from here, things soon pick up and the story truly begins.

It’s hard work turning a 500-word story into a 60-minute-long play, and often these childhood-favourites-to-stage adaptations lose too much of the story or are too patronising to work well.

Tabby McTat is different – it almost feels like a West End musical, just a bit shorter.

The songs are slick and the physical acting is cleverly choreographed.

Both are wonderfully executed.

There were plenty of genuine laugh out loud moments and by the end all the children were dancing in the aisles.

The show is raising money for Kitty in the City, a Brighton-based cat rescue charity.

Sarah Lewis-Hammond