Beware the Cat is not a play (the usual bread and butter for this company) but a proto-gothic horror novel by William Baldwin, the guiding light of the Tudor book series known as A Mirror for Magistrates (which we cover elsewhere).

We label it as proto-all-the-things, as it’s not quite the full fat product of later centuries. It’s quite gothic in setting, it’s fairly horrific at times, and it’s pretty much there as a novel – though there are caveats for all of these labels. Anyone who has read any gothic novels or short stories dealing in the weird and fantastic should recognise moments and themes that will come into life in the centuries following the writing and publishing of this tome in the 1550’s.

The book is split into a number sections. An opening letter to the editor, the introduction to the primary narrative, and then three ‘orations’ as told by Master Streamer. Rather than have the story told by the author himself, the tale is given the gloss of believability by handing it to this fictive person; this is a device frequently used when trying to relay convincingly details which are clearly fantastic or absurd. The book closes with a coda and a hymn.

We have produced a fair amount on this tale, and will be releasing more in the coming years, but the basic materials are below. You can get a general overview of the book in the below !Spoilers! episode, covering the shape and context of the creation of the book. You can find an online text version of Beware the Cat here, but the internet is vast, so do hunt about a bit. There is a good out of print edition also still generally available (Beware the Cat: The First English Novel ed. William A. Ringler Jr & Michael Flachmann – Huntington Library Press, 1995) and there is a new edition in the works.

An initial exploring session playlist – streamed live during lockdown – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLflmEwgdfKoJ_WZDPxuav1w6NgrCuivSK

Live performance of at our 2023 Revels season – This can be heard for free on our patreon feed, but you will need to become a free subscriber. Part One can be heard here! And Part Two can be heard here! Just sign up and listen!
Beware the Cat was performed in adaptation in 2019. The project blog is available here: https://bewarethecat.home.blog/ as well as a post on a performance at the RSC. We hosted a discussion with one of the project leaders, Dr Rachel Stenner – https://audioboom.com/posts/7252019-discussing-beware-the-cat
Discussing: A Mirror for Magistrates – also by William Baldwin – https://audioboom.com/posts/8456073-discussing-a-mirror-for-magistrates-with-prof-scott-c-lucas

Beware the Cat by William Baldwin, adapted and performed by Robert Crighton, was performed on Friday 15th December 2023 at The White Bear Theatre, Kennington. The edited text was performed script in hand, and the recording is currently available on the patreon feed (see above). A full production is currently in development (see below).

Coming Up in 2025

Beware the Cat by William Baldwin – adapted & performed by Robert Crighton

Taking inspiration from British Horror cinema from the 1950’s/60’s, we’ve come up with some concept artcards for this show. Whilst we might not go all in with this aesthetic, it gives a sense of how well the book gells with later gothic and horror materials. Photography by Simon Nader, with apologies to the poster designers for Hammer’s The Curse of Frankenstein and The Man Who Could Cheat Death.

If your institution – theatrical or educational – would be interested in this production coming to you, get in touch via this form. A scratch (ahem) version should be available from July 2025, and the full production from November 2025 onwards.

We inevitably will produce more of this kind of thing, though we would almost certainly start with the various evil cat films produced over the last hundred years or so. The Uncanny would be perhaps the most obvious, but Shadow of the Cat, and (at a stretch) Cat People might also be viable. We shall see.

Updates on this project as they come…