Talent: Ignatians Musical Society
Date of release: Until March 17
Date of Review: Friday, 16 March  2007 
Venue: Schonell Theatre

One cannot help but stand back in awe at the prospect of any community-based company taking on such an ambitious task as the staging of Cats. The rights for community productions having only relatively recently been released for this ever-popular musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Brisbane now finds itself in the exciting position of being treated to two productions of this show in the coming year – Ignatians Musical Society’s production running at present and Harvest Rain’s production later in the year.

Ignatians, under the experienced hand of director Simone De Haas have certainly thrown down the gauntlet with their first-class production currently running at the Schonell Theatre at the University of Queensland. Given the show’s heavy reliance on the design elements, with such heavy demands for costuming, this show proves yet again just what can be achieved on a (relatively) modest budget. De Haas has managed to pull together a quality product with highly effective costumes, set and lighting (courtesy of Scott Bagnell, Matt Jess and co) that would be the envy of many a professional company.

But the quality doesn’t end there. You can’t stage a first-rate production of this sort without a talented team of singers and dancers and De Haas has certainly found them. While it is really quite unfair with a cast as large as this to single out any particular performances one or two simply have to get a guernsey. Alice Barbery as Grizabella really gave the audience their money's worth with her beautiful rendition of Memory. Matt Fennell as Munkustrap was also a delight to watch with his highly athletic build and his energetic approach to his dancing and I particularly enjoyed George Canham’s Mr Mistoffelees and David Griffiths’ Mungojerrie as well.

The vocal work of the entire ensemble, under the careful tutelage of Harmony Lenz, was very tight and most impressive, as was the choreography, courtesy of Cathy Gunton.

In short, then, Cats is something of a find. It has set a new benchmark for community-based companies in regard to what can and should be achieved and has most certainly thrown down the gauntlet to Harvest Rain in terms of the standard they will need to compete against with their own production later this year.

Cats has been playing to capacity houses in the past few weeks and is well worth the price of a ticket. It still has a few performances to go this weekend and is well worth going to see.

It is without doubt the best production Ignatians have come up with in their thirty odd year history. Don’t miss it.

- Nigel Munro-Wallis

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This review was featured by Kelly Higgins-Devine.