Review: INDOOR/OUTDOOR at The Little Theater Of Fall River
The romantic comedy runs through March 29.
A quirky rom-com about cats, as the Director Debora Sadler, introduced the play, was indeed quirky throughout. The two-act play follows Samanatha the cat (Brianne Allain), as she tells her life story speckled with drama and self-discovery — the one that is surprisingly relatable.
Born to a mother of 20 other cats in a house where the owners don’t know “the difference between a 100 and 800 thread count”, finding a place to scratch her paws is the last of Samantha’s worries. Her life’s goal is to find true love in a human, and she does so quickly. Having “dug her claws” into his sweater, Samantha finds a home with Shuman (Zachary Boulay), but their attempts to understand each other create more confusion than clarity, drawing in Matilda, a cat therapist. And when Samantha finds love in an outdoor cat called Oscar (Michael Thompson), both Shuman and his cat begin to question whether there was ever love between them at all.
Punchy dialogue and endless misunderstandings between the characters make the audience burst with laughter again and again. The chemistry of the cast is spot on, and despite the fact that you’re watching an argument between a man and his cat, it’s hard not to relate to what they say about their needs to be seen, heard, and known.
The character of Matilda, masterfully played by Julia Curtin, keeps reappearing only to complicate things even more for Shuman and Samantha as she unloads her bag of insecurities. Adamant, relentless, and endlessly funny, Matilda needs to fix everything for everyone.
Then a mouse cartwheels into the scene in the middle of the night, eliciting gasps from the audience and awakening the other side of Samantha.
Indoor/Outdoor is an endearing exploration of what love is, and surprising ways in which it comes into the lives of humans and cats. Accompanied by great music to set the scene, by the end, the story of Samantha the cat becomes more of a reflection on all of us. We all feel the need to be loved and to belong, and this may well be what we have in common, both with each other and with our pets.
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