I THINK BIG CAT IS STEALING MY WORDS

About the show

No one ever said anything would last forever Netty knows words. She’s a retired English professor. But lately, they’ve been disappearing. The letters on a Scrabble board refuse to make sense. Names of flowers hover just out of reach. When her son Daniel comes home, his own life in disarray, neither of them can quite make sense of what’s happening. Could Netty’s big, quiet cat be eating her words? Singer-songwriter Daniel Zaitchik both wrote and performs in this intimate world premiere. Praised for “music every bit as wonderful as his sophisticated word play” (The Wrap), his lush score is illuminated by the piano at the center of Netty’s book-filled Massachusetts home. As the seasons turn, their days fill with the small rituals that make a life, and a very Big Cat who keeps getting bigger. Amid the humor and heartbreak, Daniel discovers the bittersweet experience of watching someone he loves change, and grapples with the ways he, too, may be changing. Obie Award-winning artist Shayok Misha Chowdhury directs the ensemble “with a swooning hypnotism” (The New York Times). This tender, unflinching and deeply moving memoir explores the mysteries of memory, the bond between mother and son, and the beauty of learning to let go.