Cat and Fish
Interviewed by Ella Bryson (she/her)
Naarm
“WHEN FISHING CATS STAND AT THE EDGE OF THE RIVER AND LIGHTLY TAP THE WATER LIKE AN INSECT, THIS ATTRACTS FISH. THE FISH SWIMS UP TO THE SURFACE THINKING ITS FOOD… ALLURING… ENTICING…”
The opening monologue of the play Cat and Fish is filled with intriguing and captivating dialogue about the primal relationship between two animals. Indeed, the monologue invites the audience to think of predator and prey, the natural relationship between the animals.
In turn, it invites the audience to make the connection between the two characters, Wren and Abe, and the unnaturalness of the two being together.
We are told the cat purposely creates an illusion by tapping the water… luring in the fish. Throughout the play, Abe creates a relationship with Wren that is less like a boy falling in love with a girl, but more like a predator deceiving the prey. We know that cats and fish will never successfully be together, so neither will Wren and Abe. Throughout the 70-minute immersive play the audience is prompted to think, ‘Who gets to determine who is a good person or not?’
Cat and Fish debuted at MUDFEST 2023, and had the audience laughing at the relatable and seamlessly funny dialogue between Wren and Abe, crying when the scenes that touched on consent surfaced, and applauding at the show's finale. Since then, the show has now been announced to run a second showing on October 26th, 27th and 28th at the Motley Bauhaus.
Luella Fitz (she/her) is a Melbourne-based writer and performer who wrote and starred in her debut play. With a love for storytelling, performing and her personal experience during her time at the VCA, Cat and Fish was born:
“I used to have a blog when I was 14, I always loved writing and I always kept a diary and a journal, so I think that practice of writing every day has just come naturally. So it's been almost a natural progression to do playwriting.”
“Cat and Fish, while it is predator and prey, it is also about beings that just can't be together. They just can't. They can't live together, because even though cats eat fish, fish live underwater, and cats live on land. There are people that just can't be together fundamentally because they are just not the right people.”
While it started as a story built from a funny interaction with a man in an elevator on campus, the bones and spine of the play stemmed from Luella's love of the illustrated children’s book ‘Cat and Fish’ by Joan Grant. The book is based on an unlikely pair of friends, and what both the cat and the fish have to teach each other. When working on the play over the summer, Luella revisited the book and noticed that her version was missing the element of childhood and simplicity which comes through so naturally in the book. The characters from Grant’s novel captured Wren and Abe so perfectly that the book became not only the inspiration but also the structure, with each line in the book becoming a chapter in the play:
“Growing up it was that book (Cat and Fish by Joan Grant) and Where The Wild Things Are, that's always been in the back of my mind, and I think subconsciously that's what I work towards, these magnum opus things. I could only hope to evoke a similar feeling.”
Director Alice Ridgway, writer and performer Luella Fitz, actor Joe Pike, producer Claudia Harris, sound designer Sasha Kaiser, and lightning designer Darcie Campbell have spent this past year working together to make Cat and Fish the wonderful, captivating and successful play that it is. It explores themes of consent, moral grey areas, love, relationships, and power dynamics. The show combines movement and dance to accompany the story along with incredible prose and an alluring script.
Alice worked with Luella to transform the script and build the world of Cat and Fish. Helping choreograph dances, linking the opening scene and the final scene, keeping the elevator in the play which was essential to the story and making the scenes work effortlessly together, Alice was an integral part of the making and storytelling.
Cat and Fish not only touches on real and serious topics, but also manages to balance out scenes that are humorous and undeniably natural. Scenes between Wren and Abe are not only a mix of improv and script as well as talent, and the acting between Luella and Joe was seamless.
Joe, who plays Abe, is a Naarm/Melbourne-based artist studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts (theatre) at VCA, alongside Luella and the two have formed a longstanding friendship. Joe not only has an extensive background in dance but also theatre and acting. “I always knew I wanted Joe to play Abe, says Luella.
Producer Claudia Harris discusses the importance of producers having an artistic mindset and an understanding of the theatre-making process in producing a successful play:
“This is my second play producing, and I found that it's really important as a producer to also be able to work with your artist and understand your artists, and understand what they want to achieve, and I feel like having that makes the collaboration process so much easier. Even though as a producer you're mainly focusing on the logistics side of things, it's still really important to have that communication with the artists that you're working with. Maintaining that connection and understanding was really important.”
Cat and Fish is a viscerally intimate and thought-provoking play which invites you into the characters' lives and their turbulent past. Not only is it filled with a moving script and high-quality acting done by both Luella and Joe. Complimenting the story-telling is transformative sounds and music done by Sasha Kaiser:
“The sounds were a challenge, I ended up with what I would describe as synthetically organic. There's guitar but it's distorted, there's sounds of animals but they're slightly skewered.”
With Sasha making the original sounds for the play, Darcie Campbell took the sounds and built the visuals from there. By allowing herself to weave through creatively and incorporate the lighting in such a way to compliment the music, it heightened everything that was already happening on the stage, making the viewing experience incredibly engaging.
Cat and Fish in its entirety reminded the audience what it is like to be human, to feel such deep emotions, and to experience such innate feelings. It demonstrated the growing pains of being young and experiencing what we think love is and the heartbreak that follows. It exhibits so clearly and accuratelythe pain and hurt when someone you love betrays you and the suffering and devastation one goes through when their bodily autonomy is taken away from them.
