Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Catts is the most apt show for the first Fringe to be sponsored by TikTok, given that it’s predominantly a frenetically-paced onslaught of tightly lip-synced pop culture clips.

Performed with precision and an invigorating, unhinged energy, Frankie Thompson’s ‘clown ballet’ is, however, also much more than its medium.

She conveys the idea that the glitching videos, never quite able to settle on one thing, reflect the noise inside her scrambled mind. And her collapse from aspiration – trying to get fit with a 1980s Jane Fonda VHS – into mad cat lady, obsessed, antisocial and misunderstood, is telling.

‘I’m trying to work out how to cope,’ the wide-eyed Thompson tells us up front, as she fires up that workout tape, making weird angular stretches to limber up. But any attempts to concentrate on self-improvement are derailed by constant thoughts of cats.

The frenetic show takes in all sorts of felines in pop culture: Postman Pat’s sidekick, The Aristocats, Bagpuss, moronic Apprentice candidates trying to pitch a cat calendar, even a terrifying piece of bric-a-brac brought on to the US version of Antiques Roadshow.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical is a constant refrain, again feeding into the 1980s vibe set by Ms Fonda. Broadway director Hal Prince tries to see analogies in the musical but is told bluntly there aren’t any; Elaine Paige tells of conniving to get to record Memories; and the stage cast front a truly bizarre road safety campaign in America.

There’s a smattering of puns, some playful interaction with the audience as a group, and even a dash of politics as Jacob Rees-Moggie makes a brief appearance.

But it’s not so much the constant activity that keeps you engaged as Thomson’s mesmerising, committed performance. Wearing her hair in mini-bunches to resemble cat-ears, she darts across the stage with an expressive, sometimes intense, face to match her lithe physicality.  And when the multimedia stops, she’s instantly quiet and vulnerable, uncertainly announcing: ‘It’s just me now.’

All this precision and verve is executed while delivering the complex script to split-second perfection. Thompson has marked her territory here, owning the stage - and the admiration of anyone who watches this remarkable and funny show.

• Frankie Thompson: Catts is on at the Pleasance Courtyard at 9.25pm

Review date: 20 Aug 2022
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Pleasance Courtyard