Writer: Zhaolin Zhou
There are indeed walking cats in Zhaolin Zhou’s autobiographical show, albeit ones made of Lego. And there’s a certain charm in the way that Zhou moves the cats around a board depicting Kilburn High Road during the pandemic, but overall Walking Cats lacks drama.
We were all shut in during lockdown but Zhou’s own experience was exacerbated by the fact how, newly arrived in the UK from China, he had no friends or family in the neighbourhood. Zhou shows that isolation by placing a Lego cat in the centre of a drawing of his studio flat, which is then projected onto the back wall of the Network Theatre’s stage. Zhou’s only knowledge of the outside world is Sainsbury’s and the pigeons that live in the three trees nearby, but as lockdown continues his ventures outside diminish.
Although Zhou’s story is highly personal, it’s just not strong enough to sustain the full 60 minutes. Fortunately, his delivery, calm and a little self-conscious, is entertaining and he achieves a quick rapport with the audience who forgive the few technical hitches that arise with the projector and the model of Dongfeng, Zhou’s hometown, that rises up through his workbench. All the small houses in his replica and the drawings that represent North London are made with a naiveté that is hard to resist.
Zhou was never destined to be a performer; back in China he studied to be a doctor. His parents were supportive of his switch in career and of his plan to attend drama school in London. However, he will still find it impossible to explain the genre of pantomime to his mother. He’s also been studying puppetry while in England, and it’s this influence we mainly see in Walking Cats with its sketches of Kilburn and the complex board with its hidden compartments revealing other aspects of his life and separation.
But despite Zhou’s attention to detail in both the technology and the story, Walking Cats is a little too static. His tale is sweetly told, but it would be intriguing to see whether his cats have sharper claws.
Runs until 5 February 2023
