The T-Files


Fri, 10 Sep 2004

Kuklachev's Cat Theatre

Being more intelligent (and maybe arrogant) than other people, cats only do what they feel like doing and cannot be forced to do anything else. This is a problem for Yuri Kuklachev, who created the world's only cat theatre (not counting tiger shows) and turned it into one of Moscow's favourite weekend attractions. The show is in Tokyo this week and we went to see it yesterday. It was entertaining, but the cats have not really been doing much. One of them did a handstand on its front paws (twice!), but most of the time they are just walking across the stage, holding on to objects that are being tossed around, or sitting decoratively in the background, leaving the juggling, clownery and illusions to the four human and the four canine performers.