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The Grumble Cat awakes feeling sad and blue, with a grey and grumbly cloud above his head who won’t stop following and being mean to him. He visits his friends for advice to get him out of his bad mood, as needs to feel better before the Big Concert that night and he doesn’t want to let down his friends. Follow Grumble as he discovers tha
The Grumble Cat awakes feeling sad and blue, with a grey and grumbly cloud above his head who won’t stop following and being mean to him. He visits his friends for advice to get him out of his bad mood, as needs to feel better before the Big Concert that night and he doesn’t want to let down his friends. Follow Grumble as he discovers that maybe we can’t always get rid of the cloud above our head, just make it less grey and grumbly…
The Grumble Cat awakes with a grey and grumbly cloud above his head, and goes to his friends to help him try to get rid of the cloud and his bad mood…
Bean Mouse is our resident singer and diva - everything must go perfectly if they are to win the 47th Meadow Valley Concert, and Bean Mouse really wants to win…
Kevin was born with a wobbly wing so he can’t fly off with his brothers, however Kevin has a great outlook on life and sings the iconic song “Perspective”
Sleepy Bunny is our queen of naps and self care! She’ll snuggle you by the fire, get you a fluffy blanket and glass of milk - although she‘ll probably fall asleep and forget!
Sweet Egg is always on hand to whip up some sourdough toast and a cup of tea! They are still partly in their shell, they just aren’t quite done hatching yet, but that’s okay!
Wilf appears just when you need him to - he’s calm, kind and an excellent listener.
The grey and grumbly cloud appears above Grumble‘s head and just won’t leave him alone. It makes fun of grumble, and makes him feel very sad - there must be a way to get rid of it?
A children’s puppet production co-created by Phoebe Noble and Jessie Hadley.
Book and Lyrics written by Phoebe Noble
Music and Puppet Design/Creation by Jessie Hadley
It all began back in December 2021 - Phoebe had a burning desire to create a children’s puppet show, as part of our first ever summer season with 13 Months. At the time, we were rehearsing for our first third year show at university and I (Jessie) just so happened to be having a week long sleepover with Phoebe throughout this. Phoebe discussed the idea of wanting to tackle the topic of toxic positivity for kids - we had experienced a lot of children (and adults) go through anxiety, but not understanding what that feeling is and not being able to talk about it. Especially after the pandemic, we felt it was more important than ever to translate the idea to kids that it’s okay not to be okay sometimes and that sometimes we have down days for no apparent reason. We also wanted this to be clear to parents, that there isn’t always a reason for their kids feeling a bit restless and anxious.
With this idea circulating in our brains throughout our week long sleepover, we realised the concept of our show was staring us right in the face; a phrase we would say flippantly amongst our friends when one of us was feeling a bit down - Grumble Cat. “Are you feeling like a grumble cat?” “I’m just feeling a bit grumbly” and there our show was born.
We had our central character ‘The Grumble Cat’ who wakes up feeling sad and blue and doesn’t know why or how to fix it. This concept would perfectly translate our theme of toxic positivity in a familiar way to kids.
So that week, in between rehearsals, tucked away in a corner of the theatre when I wasn’t needed, Phoebe set me to work on her iPad designing our puppet characters. I knew that something exciting was brewing but I never realised the magnitude of what we would go on to create. That week would plan our idea to turn this into a fully formed production, with music and songs and aimed to take it to Fringe in the summer of 2022.
Above, is my first ever drawing of The Grumble Cat, and a mood board to plan out his puppet form. To the left is an initial set design drawn out by Phoebe.
In early 2022, Phoebe submitted us to the Camden Fringe Festival and did everything possible to get us in The Little Angel theatre, a children’s theatre venue specialising in puppetry, which we had our hearts set on. Before we knew it, we were confirmed for the end of August 2022 in the theatre we wanted and Phoebe had completed a first d
In early 2022, Phoebe submitted us to the Camden Fringe Festival and did everything possible to get us in The Little Angel theatre, a children’s theatre venue specialising in puppetry, which we had our hearts set on. Before we knew it, we were confirmed for the end of August 2022 in the theatre we wanted and Phoebe had completed a first draft of the script, which we read through and a few tears were shed!
We then set to work making our show a reality. We got together our cast and creatives and received two days rehearsal space in June courtesy of the New Diorama Theatre. I also got started on creating the puppets, something which was completely new to me. We visited Simon Buckley, a family friend of Emily, who has worked with The Muppets, Bear Behaving Badly and so much more!
Simon kindly let us visit his puppet workshop which was full of the most incredible puppets and gave us some insight into how to tackle creating a puppet from scratch. I don’t think I could have done it without his knowledge. Myself and Tash then set to gathering materials; we purchased some foam to create bodies and raided our wardrobes for old clothes to use as materials.
Tash’s house became its own puppetry workshop, with many summer days and nights spent gluing and cutting and sewing (and eating) until finally we had a family of puppets brought to life! I had also spent my summer bringing to life the lyrics Phoebs had written with some music. We had a magical session writing our first song together, Slee
Tash’s house became its own puppetry workshop, with many summer days and nights spent gluing and cutting and sewing (and eating) until finally we had a family of puppets brought to life! I had also spent my summer bringing to life the lyrics Phoebs had written with some music. We had a magical session writing our first song together, Sleepy Bunny’s lullaby, in a corridor of our uni music building, with a ukulele and we knew we had created something special! Many adjustments would further be made, but ultimately we had something to begin our rehearsals with…
We secured a weeks rehearsal at our Alma Mater, Trinity Laban, the week before our run, to fully stage the show. The week before, Phoebe had been hard at work in her Suffolk family garage, building and painting our beautiful set with her bare hands - boss! We also got ourselves into the local paper to help promote our show! Lots of fun w
We secured a weeks rehearsal at our Alma Mater, Trinity Laban, the week before our run, to fully stage the show. The week before, Phoebe had been hard at work in her Suffolk family garage, building and painting our beautiful set with her bare hands - boss! We also got ourselves into the local paper to help promote our show! Lots of fun was had this week, exploring the puppets, costumes and enjoying creating a show with our friends!
We were lucky enough to win the Innovation Award from Trinity, a grant to massively help towards our summer season.
With rehearsals complete, we had a fully formed show, with songs and set, and we were ready for our first ever performances of the Grumble Cat, and that was only the beginning of where our beautiful show would take us…
After our week of rehearsals, we were ready to get into The Little Angel! This beautiful theatre in Islington is a converted church, with pew seating and beautiful architecture. It has its own puppet workshop next door and a theatre cat, Larry, who we were lucky enough to meet.
Phoebe‘s Dad drove down our set in his van all the way from Suffolk ready for our tech rehearsal on the Tuesday. We got to work setting up the set on the stage and showing the puppets their home for the week.
We had only one day to tech the show, which wouldn’t have been possible without the amazing Jordan Lewis, who created a beautiful lighting design for us in a matter of hours and made sure everything ran as smooth as possible. Jordan also did an excellent job of keeping up with our madness and chaos, and for that, we thank you Jordan, yes thank you.
During our 8 performances, we met some lovely audience members who loved meeting the Grumble Gang after the show and we even took the Grumble Gang on a walk around Islington to gather a few more audience members. We had friends and family watch the show and even had a girl heckle our Olivia Lawrence for an entire show, shouting ’Celeste’ - who’s Celeste, we’ll never know. We had the kids mistaking Wilf the Wise owl for a ”doggy” but the best moment was hearing the kids joining in and shouting “Wake up Grumble!”
The Little Angel Theatre, Islington
The Camden Fringe Festival
24th-28th August 2022
Cast and Creatives
Director: Ashley Stott
Grumble Cat: Jessie Hadley
Bean Mouse: Emily Rayner
Sweet Egg: Ashley Stott
Kevin: Olivia Lawrence
The Grey and Grumbly Cloud: Olivia Lawrence/Ashley Stott
Sleepy Bunny: Phoebe Noble
Wilf the Wise Owl: Phoebe Noble
Sound and Lighting Design: Jordan Lewis
Photographs: Sam Daltry
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Director: Phoebe Noble
Grumble Cat: Jessie Hadley
Bean Mouse: Emily Rayner
Sweet Egg: Lolly Platt
Kevin: Olivia Lawrence
The Grey and Grumbly Cloud: Olivia Lawrence/Lolly Platt
Sleepy Bunny: Phoebe Noble
Wilf the Wise Owl: Phoebe Noble
Koda: Koda
After our run at The Little Angel, we knew the Grumble Cat had more life. Phoebe began contacting regional theatres and schools, to start programming a pop-up season.
We are a touring company with the ability to perform our show at theatres, schools, nurseries, care homes, festivals, children’s parties, adults parties. Hey, why not have the Grumble Cat perform at your wedding? Whatever the occasion, we‘d love to hear from you and inject some grumbliness into your life. Get in touch now!
Contact us at: 13monthstheatre@gmail.com
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