Review: Sing For your Life

 I’s not everyday you walk out of a theater stating: “What have I just watched, it’s so wrong yet so hilarious. Am I going to hell for laughing?”. Sing For Your Life is the musical that sums that response up. It is a play using roadkill taxidermy puppets which was touring last week in London as part of Vault Festival in Waterloo.

Charlie Tuesday Gates who essentially came up with the whole concept is actually a taxidermy artist who made pieces for Elton John and Beyoncé in the past and now put together a pack of animals for this saucy cabaret. The Vaults gallery, is an atmospheric space which you get to buy walking under railway arches off Leake Street past some amazing to the exciting live venue. It holds a handful of performance spaces and a couple of bars inside and is home to both the Mimetic festival in November and its own six-week Vault Festival.

We follow our protagonist a designer handbag underdog who’s un conditional love for this owner is thwarted away and he questions his life. After pooping on some narcissistic one night stand who was romping with his owner, he is left neglected and wonders out of the house. The perky pup comes across a strange underground cabaret company. The band of animals who run the show are; boss badger, a drunken hasbin fox, a splattered cat, three plucked chickens, four quarreling squirrels and a stripping mink (shudders uncontrollably).

They beckon to the ‘man’s best friend’ to help get a crowd for their show using his universal cute charm. They sing their stories to him in hope he will relent and join their disorganized razzmatazz. We have great covers of songs such as ‘I’m a slave for you’ with entertaining puppetry or dancing. I have to say it was amazing to see two-three actors working one puppet and seeing them bolt across the stage in order to make realistic animal movement.

True to my Japanese culture interest I did watch it thinking the animals were animated in a bunraku-style. The actors voiced each puppet and looked directly at the puppets and not audience. They also demonstrated some beautiful vocals from ballads to Jazzy solos on stage. Four actors and 11 puppets on show literally singing for their lives. This show made me think of the BBC series Mongrals but with extra bite!

The themes explored all revolved around the main focus on injustice; the dogs is neglected, the chickens are plucked and  eaten after every show, the squirrels show prejudice nature against the one buff red breed amongst poor splat cat’s loneliness as ‘no one wants to go near that pussy’.

All the arrangements of music coupled with dark humour were directed by Kieron Vanstone, musical director Barnaby Southgate and the band’s four other musicians. Gates wrote the piece and performs alongside Madeline MacMahon, Nicholas Anscombe and Matthew Maguire.

I attended the last show of the week and it was completely packed and I was near the middle and I managed to get a great audio of the actors speaking and the musicians but I wasn’t able to see everything too clearly – which was a shame. I would recommend this for a big stage. The puppets were something to see. The humour retained sensibility at times but went full out crude at poignant moments also and I think everyone over the age of 156 would have understood and loved the show. My mother accompanied me to the show, who is in her 60’s, walked in cynical about the whole show but left with a tear in her eye and missing our cats immensely feeling sympathy with dog.

The show’s theme tune “Sing for your life,” was ingrained in my brain and I was singing all the way home.  I think I’ll be investing in the soundtrack soon. If you like animals you must take the opportunity to watch this musical in the future. 

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More cats than tourists on a Japanese island

On a mile-long island of Aoshima an army of feral cats were brought there to deal with mice that infested the fishermen's boats, the cats since have stayed and bred.

The cats survive by curling up in abandoned houses or run around fishing village looking for scraps to eat, the felines outnumbering humans six to one on this remote island in southern Japan,

It's estimated that 120 cats swarm the island with only a handful of humans for company, mostly the elderly who didn't leave the island looking for work after World War Two.

Aoshima, is only a 30-minute ferry ride off the coast of Ehime prefecture, is now visited by tourists from the mainland to see the cats. Residents have found the fascination of tourists visiting the cats weird and irritating to their daily lives. They don't mind them coming, but don't want to be disturbed in process. It is now nicknamed Cat Island.

The Island has no restaurants, cars, shops or vending machines - just cats and no one is complaining! Since the popularity of Hello Kitty, a cartoon character considered the epitome of cuteness - Cat cafe's have popped up in Japan and even in the West  where people with no pets could come enjoy their company without bringing them home.

The Cosplaying Guinea Pig Family

I absolutely love the cosplayers of the animal world (as long as no cruelty is inflicted). It takes a lot of hard work to make the outfits and getting the pet to sit still or not destroy it within seconds so I commend all owners who get that far to do photoshoots. 

Today is a new kind of cosplaying animal I have come across, a lady called Ayu on Twitter has posted up a series of photos from different anime series of her family of Ginea pigs in cosplay clad and loving it.


Not only has Ayu done a great job with the outfits she has even added props and some photo-shopping for added effect.

Meet Kintoki (male) and his mate Chikuwa (female), and their lovely daughter Menma!

Animes cosplaying from include: One Piece, Mario, Chun Li from Street fighter, Girls Und Panzer and Usagi from Sailor Moon.

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