Cat is a one-woman dark comedy created and performed by Connie Harris. After writing and performing a short monologue at the National Youth Theatre, Harris has brought Cat (now a play) to Edinburgh for this year’s EdFringe. Harris’ character, Cat, delivers her black and twisted outlook on life from the isolation of her small village where she is caring for (read: creatively attempting to murder) her elderly grandfather.
The Indiependent sat down to talk to Connie Harris about the inspirations behind her new project.
The Indiependent: How did ‘Cat’ come to be?
Harris: The first spark for the play happened when I gave a frail, elderly relative a hug goodbye. I remember leaving the room, and then having a sudden cold rush of panic. I had this irrational fear that while hugging him I’d accidentally knocked his food pipe out or pulled out his life support cord or something. I hadn’t! But still, that got me thinking…
I began to conceive a character who was intent on trying to get rid of her old relative and kept trying all kinds of methods to knock him off. Pulling out his food pipe was only the beginning!
I wrote a five-minute monologue and performed it at the National Youth Theatre in London. Then I couldn’t resist continuing with the character—I liked her too much to leave her there! I found that there was something very freeing about playing someone who had such a twisted view on life and a skewed moral compass.
Was there anything that you particularly wanted to highlight with Cat’s character?
To be honest, I didn’t go into writing Cat with an agenda of social or political issues that I aimed to tackle, I just wanted to portray a character who intrigued me. It was only in the writing process that different topics began to emerge organically; I think the main one is the responsibility of having to care for an elderly person, and the isolation and resentment that can rise out of that situation. A very serious issue arises in a twist near the end, but I don’t want to spoil the play for you!
Is it important for your work to be female-centric?
Despite being a one-woman play, ‘Cat’ doesn’t really have strong feminist undercurrents or messages. I think Cat as a character isn’t self-aware enough to raise these topics consciously. However, Cat’s situation is definitely altered by her sex; she’s a young woman who feels isolated by circumstance and has been made very aware of her mother’s disappointment at her birth: “It was a bloody girl!”.
The twist at the end (which again I won’t spoil!) is another pressing moment which brings issues around her femininity to the foreground.
Plans for the future?
That’s such a hard question—I could keep you here for days! I’ve always wanted to do rural touring to take theatre to audiences that often don’t have as easy access to drama than those in towns or cities. And I definitely plan on coming back to the fringe! Maybe with a darkly comic musical or something…
All I know for certain is that I want to keep creating drama in some form, and just see where it takes me!
Words by Katie Ross
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