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Review Mon Feb 15 2010
Cupid Cats at Gorilla Tango Theatre
Among the animals featured in Saturday's performance of Cupid Cats were: several tightrope-walking rats; a chicken who can bowl better than me; a ferret; something that looked like a lemur; a groundhog; and about a dozen cats. Samantha Martin is a foster animal caretaker who takes in animals from shelters, and her mission is both to train animals for her circus and to educate the public on how to train their own animals.
As a lifelong pet owner and a supporter of animal shelters, I had to check out Martin's latest performance at Gorilla Tango Theatre. The house was packed with children and adults, many wearing "cat ears," headbands with felt ears glued to them that were made by Martin and her assistants and were available for purchase. The show opened with smaller animals, starting with rats, causing one young audience member to exclaim "that's not a cat!"
Once the house had been warmed up, Martin brought us to a segment she called "lowering of audience expectations," in which animals still in training were presented; sometimes they performed, sometimes they didn't. When the cats successfully performed their tricks the audience went wild, and when they didn't quite make it the audience applauded anyway, knowing full well that most of us don't have what it takes to get a cat to do much beyond eat at mealtimes.
The best tricks were saved for the end of the show. Tuna, a cat who has been trained to alternately ring a concierge desk bell and reach for a jar labeled "Tips for Acro-Cats" was the star, but it was Dakota, the drummer of the three piece group The Rock Cats, who stole the show by wowing the audience with her skills. My circus-going companion collapsed into such forceful belly laughs at the sight of it that she had to dry her tears and compose herself before the lights went up.
Samantha Martin and her cats will be performing next month in Skokie, for information and tickets visit The Acro-Cats or The Skokie Theatre Music Foundation.