TALKING TOTO TO DERMOT O’LEARY & SAMANTHA LANE
What do your pets get up to when you’re not around? When Dermot O’Leary adopted Toto and Silver, two wriggling little kittens from Italy, he began to imagine their adventures: solving crimes, making friends and getting into all sorts of sticky situations.
These daydreams led to the bestselling children’s novel, Toto the Ninja Cat and the Great Snake Escape. The first of a series of six so far – with the seventh coming later in 2026 – the book immediately captured the imaginations of children and their parents. Now, Toto’s story has been adapted into a big-hearted play with a menagerie of animal puppets, including cats, rats, and a king cobra almost as large as the entire stage.
“We were going to get a dog,” O’Leary admits. But Plaxy, the local cat who wandered around the olive groves in Italy, where O’Leary and his wife Dee spend much of their time, had other ideas. One night, when O’Leary was back in London for work, Dee video-called him to say Plaxy was having kittens in her pillowcase. “She stayed up all night and helped deliver Silver and Toto,” O’Leary recalls. “They’ve been with us ever since.”
The idea for writing about Toto happened almost by accident. When O’Leary brought the cats home, it quickly became apparent – from the amount of time Toto spent bumping into things – that she was blind. But the vet explained that cats can compensate for lack of sight with other senses, so Toto is able to use her sharp hearing and clever whiskers to navigate the world. “She had these incredible reactions,” O’Leary remembers. “We started calling her the little ninja and that’s where the original idea came from. I thought, what if she was actually a member of an ancient order of international ninjas?” In the story, Toto uses her ninja powers to protect, fight and gain respect from unexpected members of the animal kingdom, often ones that are significantly larger, stronger and slightly more ferocious-looking than she is.
“It’s a story of two cats facing the world together with courage and humour,” says Samantha Lane, who co-adapted and directs the play that features original music from co-adaptor Barb Jungr. “Toto’s blindness is never a limitation,” Lane adds. “It’s simply part of who she is. She’s resourceful and capable, and I think that sends a powerful message to children about possibility and self-belief. And Silver, right by her side, is always her biggest cheerleader.”
Lane is unusually well-placed to lead this shenanigan-filled show about animal adventures. She is not only Artistic Director of Little Angel Theatre, now celebrating its 65th year as a home for world-class puppetry, but she also has her own menagerie at home, with two rabbits, two guinea pigs and a dog. As the director of a puppet theatre, Lane gets a lot of people plopping books on her desk and suggesting they’d be good for a puppet show. But when it happened with O’Leary’s book, something caught her attention. She’d been wanting to collaborate with the Mercury Theatre in Colchester, and the team there were keen to create something that had roots in Essex, where O’Leary is from, so she picked it up and started to read as this whirlwind of animal activity stomped and slithered off the page. “I couldn’t put it down,” Lane says. “I loved the idea of this underground world of animals that coexists alongside humans.”
Toto’s story is one of adventure and friendship, as local legend CatFace, a trench-coated creature with remarkably ratty sensibilities, leads the cats through London at night, stopping at the biggest attractions after hours and landing at the zoo, where chaos has been unleashed. For the stage production, Nick East’s beautiful black and white illustrations in the books have been transformed into living, breathing, colourful creatures by award-winning puppet designer Oliver Hymans, the Associate Director at Little Angel Theatre. “I was blown away when I saw the puppets,” says O’Leary. “These stories come to life in my office, and suddenly they’re there!”
To Lane, this story of snakes in love and rats at war was an obvious fit for the theatre. “It felt like the perfect story to tell using puppets because it’s about a cat who’s got incredibly skillful ninja moves,” she says, “and with puppets, you can make magic happen, because you’re asking people to sit up and believe in something that isn’t real.” O’Leary has been delighted by the process of transformation for his story. “It’s been lovely to see people buy into something that’s so close to my heart,” he says.
The play is designed for anyone over the age of 5. “When you read the title you might be inclined to think that it’s all about fighting and good versus evil,” says Lane, “but actually, there aren’t any evil characters in this book. They’re all a little bit misunderstood.” Part of the joy of the story is unlearning preconceptions some of the characters have about each other, and seeing them form unlikely friendships along the way. “It’s a gorgeous message about how kindness and working together will always prevail.” While Silver is always on the lookout for food, Toto is using her special skills to protect her sibling and their new furry, scaly and long-tailed friends.
Lane and Jungr have worked on many shows together, but the majority of stories they’ve adapted have been picture books. That usually means transforming what can be read in five minutes into a 45-minute show. With Toto, Lane says, “we’ve got to think about how we shape and condense it while staying true to its heart.” While all the most beloved characters from the books are kept in the story, some of them have had a promotion. Astute readers may remember Robert, the parakeet who chats to Toto, Silver and CatFace when they get some hectic news from the zoo. In the play, Robert, as a puppet a little larger than a ruler, has been made into a much more prominent character helping to tell the story. “He’s a bridge between the human and animal world,” Lane explains.
Making a story like this come to life requires incredible artistry and skill. “There’s a misconception that anybody can pick up a puppet and bring it to life,” Lane says. “It’s an incredibly skilled art form. When it’s done well, I challenge anyone to remember that there were any human beings in the show.” The puppeteers are “incredible,” O’Leary says. “I love how everyone working on it has really come along for the ride and bought their own interpretations to it.”
The show will be heading out on tour after performing at the three co-producing theatres: the Mercury Theatre in Colchester, Little Angel Theatre in London, and the Mayflower Studios in Southampton. “It’s a lovely full circle moment because we’re going back to the Mercury, which was my local theatre,” says O’Leary. “I was in an amateur dramatics troupe called the Stane Street Players and I loved that. Theatre was a huge part of my life growing up – and still is.”
O’Leary hopes his story on stage provides a joyful, silly, entertaining time for families. “It’s a universal message of not giving up,” he says. “Of friendship and respect and not judging a book by its cover.” This a message he reckons the real Toto would approve of. “Toto loves people,” he says. “She’s very gentle and when Kasper,” his son, “cries, she’s always the first one there. So yes,” he confirms, “I think she’d like it.”
By Kate Wyver
Toto the Ninja Cat and the Great Snake Escape
–
GET TICKETS
Discover more events and experiences in south west london, Surrey hills & south downs
