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If in “Tiger” Kerr describes miscommunication from the human perspective, the “Mog” books examine it from that of the animal. For Kerr, the chief problem with being a cat is that your needs often come up against those of an uncomprehending or unwilling world. Often, however, the books rely on such misapprehension not just for their animating conflict but also for their resolution. When a burglar steals into the house in “Mog the Forgetful Cat,” Mog, still sitting in the garden, meows “her biggest meow, very sudden and very, very loud,” hoping that the burglar will let her in through the kitchen window, as the family sometimes does. (“Perhaps he will give me my supper.”) The burglar, alarmed, drops his bag, waking the Thomases, who call the police. After the robber is caught, Mog, no longer a bothersome cat, is called “remarkable” by a policeman, awarded a medal, and given an egg for breakfast. Birthday Wondering what to do for your son or daughter’s 21st birthday party? From themed decorations, tableware and accessories to balloons, invitations and personalised banners, we have all the ideas and inspiration you need to give them the celebration they deserve! Make a badge for Mog from a circle of card on a ribbon or string. Your child could decorate the badge with felt tip pens. Paint a picture Birthday Wondering what to do for your son or daughter’s 16th birthday party? From themed decorations, tableware and accessories to balloons, invitations and personalised banners, we have all the ideas and inspiration you need to give them the celebration they deserve! Judith Kerr’s series of Mog books have long been a staple of children’s bookshelves, delighting families of feline fans for over fifty years . Although cats don’t typically roam far from home, Mog is having quite the adventure as she tours across the UK. Adapted by The Wardrobe Ensemble (in a co-production with The Old Vic & Royal & Derngate, Northampton), Mog the Forgetful Cat is currently playing at The Old Vic, ahead of a summer stint at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Birthday Wondering what to do for your son or daughter’s 40th birthday party? From themed decorations, tableware and accessories to balloons, invitations and personalised banners, we have all the ideas and inspiration you need to give them the celebration they deserve! Half-sung all the way through, it’s full of good-natured, eccentric cheer, with Georgina Goodchild lovably dopey as the beleaguered feline. Clearly the decision has been taken to not have her costume look slavishly similar to Kerr’s illustrations, but she captures her clumsy, toddler-like brio perfectly. The rest of the cast multitask furiously and amusingly - the most virtuosic scene is at the vets, and sees three actors play both pets and their owners simultaneously. It’s all very gentle, but leans subtly into Kerr’s unsentimental worldview, where Mog is genuinely a bit irritating – here Mr Thomas very possibly mimes an expletive at the audience when Mog wees in his chair. Look out for cats as you go out and about. What are they doing, do any look like Mog or behave like her? Make a reward for Mog Birthday Wondering what to do for your son or daughter’s 17th birthday party? From themed decorations, tableware and accessories to balloons, invitations and personalised banners, we have all the ideas and inspiration you need to give them the celebration they deserve! The Wardrobe Ensemble adapt Judith Kerr’s beloved and iconic stories for the stage, in a lively and enchanting production directed by Jesse Jones and Helena Middleton, with songs, live music and a menagerie of creatures little and large. These timeless tales of family and friendship are brought to life to allow a new generation of children to fall in love with Mog.Original songs have been especially created for the show, particularly catchy is ‘Bother that Cat’; an important catchphrase of the show. An exciting trip to the V.E.T (shhh don’t say it aloud!) occurs, where the witty concept of owners evolving to look like their pets works well for the adults in the audience. Choreography in the form of a cat chase and a cat show group dance is visually pleasant. Age 3-5 years Mog is a loveable family pet. Mum and Dad sometimes find she can be a bit of a nuisance though, particularly when it comes to remembering she has a cat flap. One day Mog gets into all sorts of trouble. She ends up alone in the garden at night feeling very sorry for herself. But when she unwittingly disturbs a burglar, suddenly she becomes a hero, and everyone is praising her instead of grumbling about her. Now a picture book classic, first published over forty years ago, this is a warm, humorous and enjoyable story about a very appealing if rather hapless cat who saves the day. Share the story Read aloud Birthday Wondering what to do for your son or daughter’s 60th birthday party? From themed decorations, tableware and accessories to balloons, invitations and personalised banners, we have all the ideas and inspiration you need to give them the celebration they deserve! Birthday Wondering what to do for your son or daughter’s 30th birthday party? From themed decorations, tableware and accessories to balloons, invitations and personalised banners, we have all the ideas and inspiration you need to give them the celebration they deserve! Birthdays Wondering what to do for your son or daughter’s 2nd birthday party? From themed decorations, tableware and accessories to balloons, invitations and personalised banners, we have all the ideas and inspiration you need to give them the celebration they deserve!
When things do get going, Mr Bunce steps into the role of narrator, beginning – of course – with the tale of how Mog’s forgetfulness gets her into all sorts of trouble until she inadvertently thwarts a burglar and becomes the pride of Thomas household. It’s a nicely paced slink through the oldest and most familiar of the Mog tales before the fun ramps up for the slightly sillier more recent stories. Birthdays Wondering what to do for your son or daughter’s100th birthday party? From themed decorations, tableware and accessories to balloons, invitations and personalised banners, we have all the ideas and inspiration you need to give them the celebration they deserve! Your child can tell the story to you using the pictures as prompts. You may find they use the same language as the story, or they may tell it using their own words. Watch the story read aloud Mog meows, yowls and purrs, Goodchild moves convincingly with the true grace of a cat, truly embodying the movement and mannerisms and so we fully believe the action.Once there was a cat called Mog. She lived with a family called Thomas. Mog was nice but not very clever. She didn’t understand a lot of things. A lot of other things she forgot. She was a very forgetful cat.” So begins Judith Kerr’s picture book “ Mog the Forgetful Cat,” published in England in 1970. Though this was only the first of Kerr’s “Mog” volumes—which ended up numbering more than a dozen by the time the last of the bunch, “ Goodbye Mog,” came out, in 2002—these opening lines establish the series’ rhythm and sensibility. Kerr, who died in May, at the age of ninety-five, having published more than thirty much beloved books in the course of her career, once said that she tried never to use more than two hundred and fifty words in any of her books, so that young children could follow along. But it was, perhaps, exactly this limitation that heightened her ability to pinpoint, with a beautiful specificity, the character of her feline protagonist. Just like Mog—a stout, friendly tabby with a round face, a white bib, and white paws, who gets into a variety of small domestic scrapes because of her limited grasp of the world around her—Kerr’s language is simple and a little plodding. The sentences are short and of consistent length—not unlike the padded footfalls of a rotund cat—and, in their occasional repetitiveness, mimic a feline’s clumsy thinking. While the late Judith Kerr will be forever best known for her mildly unsettling picture-book classic ‘The Tiger Who Came for Tea’, she also spread joy to generations of kids with another, more-lovable feline: Mog. The accident-prone tabby debuted in 1970’s ‘Mog the Forgetful Cat’, and enjoyed three decades of gentle adventures with the Thomas family before poignantly meeting her end in 2002’s ‘Goodbye, Mog’. There is an unavoidably episodic narrative but the stories are interspersed with lyrical observations on the changing seasons and the show gives a vivid sense not just of Mog’s dreamworld but the others’ too: Debbie’s nightmare of a tiger is echoed by a vet’s restless night, haunted by visions of poorly pandas and crocodiles. We enter McEwan Hall the Grade A-listed building, to the sounds of cat-based songs where the audience have fun responding to questions about whether they have any pets, by calling out their varied names, this task puts all at ease and we are ready to begin the show. If you have a pet cat or know someone who does talk about the ways they are like Mog or different from Mog.
The palpable onstage bond within the company, common in Wardrobe Ensemble shows, helps to make this a warm-hearted portrait of family life and, of course, the cat’s place within it – whether on the comfiest chair or under your feet.And thegreat thing about having an entire 32-year series of stories behind you is that this stageversiondoesn’t have to do that thing where a kids’ picture book adaptation is 15 minutes of story and 45 of padding. Mog is just relaxing at home when suddenly all hell breaks loose. Being a cat, she cannot just jump up and ask, “hey buddy what’s going on?”. However, instead she conducts her own investigation, and son the house fills up with people with objects hidden inside a paper wrapped in ribbon, people dancing around and drinking and soon a big fire tree is brought in a placed in the middle of the living room. Judith Kerr had an exciting life her dad, Alfred Kempner later changed the name to Kerr was a prominent German theatre critic famously known by many as the Culture Pope or Kulturpapst. She was born in a Jewish origin in Germany in 1923, but her family relocated to Britain at the age of 10 just before the Nazis came to power. Besides from writing Mog the Cat series, Kerr also wrote The Tiger Who Came to Tea, and other acclaimed books for older children including the semi-autobiographical novel, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, a book that gave an account of a child’s- point of view of the World War II. Kerr is a resident of Barnes, London living in the same old house she has lived since 1962 and claims that since the death of her beloved husband, writing became more crucial than anything else the world has to offer.
This is the first time in their 50-year history that Judith Kerr’s books, beloved by successive generations of children, have been adapted for the stage. With this production directed by Helena Middleton and Jesse Jones, The Wardrobe Ensemble rises to the challenge with all the wit and charm that we’ve come to expect from them. Birthday Wondering what to do for your son or daughter’s 18th birthday party? From themed decorations, tableware and accessories to balloons, invitations and personalised banners, we have all the ideas and inspiration you need to give them the celebration they deserve!We are introduced to Mr Bunce and a talented pianist and trumpet-player, who keeps the tempo up throughout. We meet Mog’s classic 2.4 family, The Thomas’ and we are cheerily introduced to the local wildlife in the form of Budsey the playful Bunny Rabbit, Beaky the chatty Parrot, Yuppy the angry chair biting dog and we patiently wait in excited trepidation to meet the absolute star of the show, the brilliant Mog played by Georgina Goodchild.
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