“PURR…POWER”, Theatre Arts & The New Country Wife

© ITN 2009

According to work by scientists reported on ITN today, cats control people through their purr, particularly where their food is concerned.  However, this also applies to their creative projects and Rocco (the Cat) has reminded me of a couple of things I need to do. Incidentally, he looks very like the handsome cat in the above photograph.

Firstly, he has asked me to report calls from actors union, Equity, for cats to return to the London theatres in their traditional role as catchers of mice and rats, as headlined in this week’s edition of The Stage.

Secondly, Rocco has suggested that I consider developing a play (possibly for theatre, but perhaps for radio in the first instance) based on the synopsis of a drama I wrote last year at our other Janet Rocco Blog, with the working title of “The Right Hon Lord Shag of Solihull”, about a gentleman with a fortune originally made in the carpet business.

With regard to the latter project, I’m now minded to call this drama “The New Country Wife”, after the 17th century Restoration Comedy “The Country Wife”*, and, yes, it will of course deal with the subjects of Sex, Politics and Money in the later Noughties, or as it’s heroine, Samantha Shag calls them : the Naughties.

Rocco will be acting as agent for this venture, so  if any one would like to sponsor our New Restoration comedy, please could they email janet.rocco@tiscali.co.uk  Many Thanks !

Background to The New Country Wife and a Preview can be found @ http://janetrocco.blogspot.com  

More information about Restoration Comedy and The Country Wife @

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Country_Wife

All the President’s Dogs…& Cats

EVAN VUCCI/PA Archive/PA Photos

News that he’s to be top dog for not much longer seems to have upset US First Pet Barney, who bit a journalist shortly after Barack Obama was voted in as President Elect, and declared his intention to bring a new puppy in to the White House next year.

Meanwhile, our Anglo-Russian feline political discourse “Tails of Two Nations” has taken-off … as the fur flies ! (see below).

Sybil & Dorotheus : The Tales (& Tails !) of Two Nations

We are delighted to announce a major new international collaboration between the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer’s cat, Sybil, and Dorotheus, feline of the Russian President. The collaboration will involve a series of dialogues, facilitated by our old friend Boris the Cat, on a range of important political themes. In the opening session, each cat will clarify her/his ideological pedigree. Photographs are courtesy of The Telegraph and Izvestia. The title of the series owes it’s inspiration to “Sybil, A Tale of Two Nations” by 19th century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, to whom the saying ” Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics” is attributed.

Sybil

Dorotheus