Chichester's Pesky Rat hits the road on libraries tour

The show is being directed by Romina Hytten and by Peter Twose through their new company Motion Sickness, offering the funny, touching tale of how a pesky street rat finds “home sweet home.”

Longing to become someone’s pet, to have an owner without being owned, rat considers his friends’ homes, but none are quite the right fit. All rat really wants is a kindly owner, a name, and no baths... He’s even willing to wear a jumper – at a push!

The show was a sell-out in The Nest, but you can catch it on its West Sussex libraries tour. Dates are Hurstpierpoint, Sept 1, 9.30am; Rustington, Sept 1, 3pm; Chichester, Sept 2, 10.30am & 12.30pm; Bognor, Sept 3, 10.30am; Littlehampton, Sept 3, 2.30pm; Horsham, Sept 4, 12pm; Crawley, Sept 4, 3.45pm; Midhurst, Sept 5, 10.30am; Billingshurst, Sept 5, 2.30pm; Lancing, Sept 6, 1.30pm; Haywards Heath, Sept 13, 11am. Spaces need to be reserved as each library will have capacity numbers.

Based on the award-winning picture book written and illustrated by former Children's Laureate Lauren Child, the show will be performed by a company made up of former Chichester Festival Youth Theatre (CFYT) members as part of the CFYT at 40 celebrations. The company comprises: Jack Mallender, Emily McAlpine, Ella Bassett and Lucy Tebb. Between them, they will gently explore themes of homelessness and belonging, along the way encouraging young children to empathise with others.

Romina is delighted that her and Peter's new company can start life in Chichester. A former pupil at Bishop Luffa, she was at the Youth Theatre from the ages of 11 to 19 and took part in all the Christmas and summer shows that she could.

“That Pesky Rat is a lovely sweet and inspiring story about wanting to have a home and about the need for a home. This little rat lives in dustbin number three in Grubby Alley and basically he gets thrown out of his home every week by somebody emptying the bins.”

Peter and Romina were wanting to make their own work and to start their own company and Chichester was the ideal place to start, given all Romina’s connections with the city: “I met

Dale (Rooks, director of Learning, Education and Participation (LEAP) at Chichester Festival Theatre) for a coffee and said: ‘We're just starting a theatre company together, what is your advice?’ And she said that she wanted us to do the show here. So we auditioned some Youth Theatre members that had gone away to drama school or wherever and were keen to work with us.

“(With the company) we want to make really enjoyable, fun, anarchic theatre that pushes forms. We're both very passionate about puppetry and movement, so it is a puppetry and movement-led company. Peter is also a writer and a composer so he is bringing those skills to it as well. We have some things that Peter has written that we want to do as well.

“But making your own theatre is really tough so it's great to be able to start with Chichester Festival Theatre’s support. And it has been great. We have all been throwing ideas around and it has been a really joyful and creative experience. It has been a really playful time. Theatre should be playful and joyful and inspiring, and that's what we want to do. It's about having fun and playing with imagination and playing with creativity, just throwing around lots of ideas. It has been a really collaborative process.”