ANGEL AT LARGE
by Nigel Forde

Performed: January 1996 at St Jude's Nursery School, Silver Street, Southsea.

Top Cat's first full-length production was a family pantomime written by Nigel Forde, one of the founder members of the highly-acclaimed Riding Lights Theatre Company. It told the story of Auriol, an angel sent to watch over the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.

It features a grumpy Herod, who sends a couple of half-witted soldiers Maximus and Tichicus to kill Jesus, as well as the pantomime camel Desmond.

The play raised money for the appeal to repair the roof of St Jude's Church in Southsea, the centrepiece of Thomas Owen's Victorian development of Southsea, and one of the area's favourite landmarks.

Top Cat revived the play for another production for Christmas 2011. Read about it here.