PUSS PUSS Review by Solomiya Sywak

Looking back at my notes after watching Natalia Sledz’s one-woman (one-cat?) show PUSS PUSS, they read less like a review and more like the aftermath of a catnip-fuelled fever dream – Cats: The Musical on acid. With barely a word exchanged beyond meows, screeches and the occasional hiss, Sledz somehow makes every one of Puss Puss’ emotions, needs and desires completely legible. It’s physical comedy at its most feline: exaggerated, expressive and gloriously chaotic.

Playing in the aptly named Boom Boom Room at Erskineville Town Hall, PUSS PUSS invites its audience into the chaos from the very beginning. There’s no gradual easing into the character or the world; instead, Puss Puss makes her entrance by bursting through a cardboard box and straight into the audience. From there, the boundary between performer and spectator quickly begins to dissolve, with Sledz using the intimate space, and the audience within it, as part of the show’s comic playground.

With jaunty music and absolutely no respect for personal space, PUSS PUSS makes up for its loose narrative with a series of cat-nightmare-fuelled projections: bath time, a vacuum cleaner and, naturally, a cucumber. Sledz deserves particular applause for the lightning-fast transformations between these feline villains and Puss Puss herself. She darts through doors in classic Scooby-Doo fashion, reappearing on stage almost instantaneously, never seeming to break a sweat. The show is packed with the kind of silly, laugh-out-loud moments that are impossible to contain — from sniffing catnip like it’s jungle juice to an audience member chasing Puss Puss around the theatre with a cone of shame. Despite the unpredictability of audience interaction, Sledz handles every spontaneous moment with such ease that the chaos feels completely intentional.

It was only when the aforementioned cone of shame began filling up with cat food that I seriously started questioning just how deep Sledz had gone into the character.

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Solomiya attended PUSS PUSS on Thursday 17 September at Erskineville Town Hall