''Blood on the Cat's Neck'' or ''Blood on the Neck of the Cat'' is an absurdist 1971 play originally written by

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Rainer Werner Fassbinder (; 31 May 1945 – 10 June 1982), sometimes credited as R. W. Fassbinder, was a German filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the major figures and catalysts of the New German Cinema movement. Fassbinder's main ...

. It was first produced in

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

under the title ''Blut am Hals der Katze''. It is sometimes subtitled ''Marilyn Monroe vs. The Vampires''. In translation, it has been revived several times, including a six-month stint at the

Trap Door Theatre Trap Door Theatre is an American, Jeff Award-winning, avant-garde theatre company based in Chicago. Its focus is on European and original experimental material. History Trap Door Theatre, founded by Beata Pilch and Sean Marlow, was incorporated ...

in 1996 and then the

Mercury Theater The Mercury Theatre was an independent repertory theatre company founded in New York City in 1937 by Orson Welles and producer John Houseman. The company produced theatrical presentations, radio programs and motion pictures. The Mercury also r ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. The Chicago production of the play at the Trap Door Theatre under director Andrew Cooper Wasser starred Beata Pilch, Sean Marlow, Kristie Hassinger, Summer Chance, Eileen James, Valentine Miele, Michael Garvey,

Bob Rusch Robert D. "Bob" Rusch (born April 3, 1943 in New York City) is an American jazz critic and record producer. Rusch has also been accused of allegedly sexual abusing students when he worked as a teacher. Biography Rusch studied clarinet and drums ...

, and others. It was performed again in 2013 to mark the 20th anniversary of the theatre.

Clive Mantle Clive Andrew Mantle (born 3 June 1957) is an English actor. He played general surgeon Mike Barratt in the BBC hospital drama series ''Casualty'' and '' Holby City'' in the 1990s, and Little John in the 1980s fantasy series ''Robin of Sherwood' ...

also once starred in a production of it. More recently the play has been put on in an Ian W. Hill production at

The Brick Theater The Brick Theater is a venue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn that presents dance, performance art, drag, comedy, film, music, experimental theatre, and more. Gothamist has hailed the space as “one of the city’s most reliable sources for smart, funny, ...

in which Gyda Arber starred as Phoebe the alien as a "voluptuous blonde in a torn dress",

Danny Bowes Daniel John ‘Danny’ Bowes (born 14 April 1960, West Ham, Essex, England) is a British hard rock singer. Education Bowes was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College. Life and career Bowes is the lead singer with the rock act, Thund ...

as the cop, and Toya Lillard as the mistress. in 2017 at Baran theater This play was directed by

Mohsen Moeini Mohsen Moeini (born 27 March) is an Iranian author and director. His work mainly centers around his philosophical and historical preoccupations. As well as directing his own plays, he has directed plays by foreign authors such as Peter Handke a ...

in Iran.

Plot

The play visits the question of how an alien from space might view humanity; the alien in the play is an attractive woman named Phoebe Zeitgeist, an alien vampire taken from a 1960s comic book. In this play, she is surrounded by horrible people at a cocktail party and learns how to speak from them. The play has three sections: an opening section in which the main characters give monologues that reveal themselves; a second section in which Phoebe speaks one-on-one with these characters, picking up certain phrases from them; and the final section, in which Phoebe, using her limited vocabulary, repeats back "their aphoristic and self-justifying slogans", with the other characters divided over whether she is smart or drunk.

Reception

Jack Helbig Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas, USA People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, i ...

of the ''

Chicago Reader The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. It was founded by a ...

'' described it as a "darkly sarcastic, gloriously messy absurdist play about an alien ..who comes into the world naked and guileless and learns to play all our dangerous games." Kerry Reid of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' says that Fassbinder's dark world view is shallow, but still fresher than the similar worldview of more recent filmmaker and playwright

Neil LaBute Neil N. LaBute (born March 19, 1963) is an American playwright, film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is best-known for a play that he wrote and later adapted for film, ''In the Company of Men'' (1997), which won awards from the Sundance Fi ...

References

{{reflist German plays 1971 plays Plays based on comic strips