Penny McCarthy’s illustrations at performance of ‘Beware the Cat’ at the Royal Shakespeare Company – Saturday 06 July 2019

The world’s first ever English novel – a little known satire of magic and religious controversy written during a time of immense political and social change across England and Europe – has been brought to life by researchers at the University of Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam and Sussex.

The novel, Beware the Cat, was first written in 1552 before many of the more well-known early modern writers published their first work. It tells a tale of witchcraft, religious controversy, and talking cats in a bid to help us imagine what animals might say about the world if they had the ability to talk.

Centred on the grisly alchemical experiments of a rambling priest seeking to understand the language of cats, the story asks a question that has provoked humans across the ages: do birds and beasts have reason?

Professor Frances Babbage from the University of Sheffield’s School of English and Dr Rachel Stenner from the School of English at the University of Sussex have worked with Terry O’Connor from UK theatre ensemble Forced Entertainment and Penny McCarthy from Sheffield Hallam’s Fine Art department on a project to adapt the novel into a theatre performance for audiences across the UK to see. They were joined in this piece of collaborative research by Dr Bob McKay, Dr Bill McDonnell, Dr Robyn Orfitelli and Professor Adam Piette.

Beware the Cat is a free event made possible through funding by the University of Sheffield, Festival of the Mind, Society for Renaissance Studies, University of Sussex, Higher Education Innovation Fund