Two Cats and a Kid

In this coming-of-age play, two weird strangers, Evalina Belle and Thomas Beau, enter the Wellington household during a frightful February blizzard. They have homed in on the beams sent out by almost equally weird Trudy Wellington, a precocious tween convinced she has lived before and who has determined to rescue her stuffy parents from "zombie land". Meanwhile, 12 year old Trudy and the alter ego her mind has created out of necessity, an occasionally wise and rarely courageous Airedale named Mr. Venable, confront the two strangers, actually anthropomorphic cats, neither one very nice, but both decidedly interesting, much to Trudy's immediate deight and ultimate chagrin and Venable's alarm. A strange moment arrives after violent conflict when Trudy must choose between two remarkably different worlds, one as old as the First Egyptian Dynasty and the other contemporary. This comic modern fable could be useful in sizing up that next stranger who knocks on your door or in teaching family members how to be better people, even if they are dedicated stick-in-the-muds. It is truly surprising how cats, given an opportunity, can force an issue.