North East Theatre Guide: Preview: Cat Loud at Newcastle Alphabetti

Toasting the Apocalypse in Style

Cat Loud: To the End of the World!

Newcastle Alphabetti Theatre

Saturday 9^th March 2019

WINNER: VAULT Festival Origins Award for Outstanding New Work, 2018

Photo: Snookie Mono

Cat Loud is a Scottish singer bringing her award-winning cabaret about the apocalypse to Newcastle’s Alphabetti Theatre on March 9^th. It’s a blend of satirical storytelling and songs from the likes of Nina Simone, Cat Power and Benjamin Clementine, accompanied by Fraser Parry on cello. It’ll be her first time performing in Newcastle but the NETG saw her in action in 2016 at Edinburgh Fringe and gave her a 5 star review.

So… who is Cat?

Cat Loud gets a few things off her chest before the champagne runs out

To the End of the World!, a darkly funny cocktail of story and song is coming to Newcastle this March after a year on the road. This combination concert, cabaret and theatre show from the critically acclaimed Cat Loud is a heady blend of soul-baring torch songs and biting wit.

It’s the end of the world and Cat Loud is making her way home to a Scottish island in heels and ball gown. “Some days it really does feel like the end is coming,” says Loud (29). “And I thought, what would I do if it were? I’d want to go home. But I’d want to do it in style.”

That style - think Billie Holiday crossed with Bette Midler - has become Loud’s trademark, after four critically acclaimed runs at the Edinburgh Fringe, a subsequent tour and transfers of previous show WAYWARD to London’s VAULT Festival, Croydon Cabaret Festival and the Brighton Fringe.

Photo: Allan Feguson

“It’s been so lovely to see how well people have responded to this show in particular. It’s a mix of genres I call gig-theatre-cabaret, and that can be tricky, as well as the subject matter.

It really is cabaret about the apocalypse. Cat’s anxious mind is used to imagining worst-case scenarios, but this time she takes it to a biblical extreme as she imagines the end of days as a confusing, lonely yet hopeful place. “It’s such a bleak thing to imagine, but with Brexit deadlines, climate change and turning thirty all weighing on my mind, it had to still have lightness. So there’s also a lot of humour, and that’s really important. I have some serious things to say, but it’s got to be fun.”

And it is, with The List describing her work as a combination of “sharp-tongued comedy” and “a brand of dusky torch singing that stuns the room into silence”.

Photo: Snookie Mono

As at home in smaller gig spaces as she is in plush surroundings, she blends showstopping songs with the intimacy of relaxed and honest storytelling, sometimes autobiographical, sometimes satirical take-downs of the current state of the world. There’s a sense of connection and community at the heart of a good night out.

“I’m incredibly excited to be bringing the show to Newcastle for the first time. The show has already been all over the place, and the music scenes in every city are so different and rich. There’s something for everyone.” This is reflected in Loud’s song choices, which range from the mournful lyrics of Solomon Burke, the biting wit of Benjamin Clementine and the power of Nina Simone and Adele, all accompanied by Fraser Parry on cello.

If it is the beginning of the end, then you’re in excellent company.

Reviews:

★★★★★ North East Theatre Guide

★★★★★ Broadway Baby

★★★★★ West End Wilma

★★★★★ TV Bomb

★★★★★ Breaking the Fourth Wall

★★★★★ Culture By Night