Nikki McIntosh
Actors in a room holding scripts.
Pile of Cats actors rehearsing ‘There’s an App 4 That.’
It’s a name designed to draw attention. Pile of Cat Theatre Company was born on a road trip to an apple orchard in Poynette, Wisconsin. Producer/writer/director Ned O’Reilly and his wife came upon a bench covered with cats sunning themselves and he mused that that “pile of cats” would be a great title for a play — or better, a name for a new theater company. Its first production, Hindsight is Always 20/20 (mostly comic scenes about surviving the pandemic) was performed at The Crucible in 2021. It’s since been followed by Floppy Torque in the Joint, Chai Anxiety and In Your Skin.
Pile of Cats was in some ways a new iteration of Left of Left Center, a theater group O’Reilly founded and billed as having “a strong emphasis on original works and some-frills productions.” Ned saw a need for locally produced, acted and written theater and thus began a collaboration with Jason Compton who was involved with most, if not all of the company’s shows. The goal was to bring new and innovative theater to Madison, with a decidedly left of center vibe. The name was chosen by O’Reilly as an homage to baseball’s left center field and the Suzanne Vega song “Left of Center.” The duo produced 12 shows, including Beta Blockers, Good Work and Craving: A Variety Show.
Compton hails from Streamwood, Illinois, and studied at Northwestern. In Madison he’s worked with Madison Theatre Guild, Strollers, Are We Delicious? and Madison Shakespeare Company.
O’Reilly was born and raised in Crystal Lake, Illinois, where he performed in many productions before relocating to Wisconsin. He’s written short stories, songs, plays and a novel — before a recent surge of playwriting that’s included Flamingo Beach Follies, produced by Primus Theatre in Chicago, Identity Cruxes through Broom Street Theater and at Chicago’s Rhinofest, and Widescreen, produced by Mercury Players.
During the COVID-19 shutdown, O’Reilly and Compton went on a “forced hiatus” and eventually went their separate ways. Compton focused on working with Madison Shakespeare Company and O’Reilly returned to writing plays.
The fifth Pile of Cats production will open May 19 at the Bartell Theatre. There’s an App 4 That is a part of World Premiere Wisconsin, the statewide festival of new theatrical works.
The play is a romantic comedy, a mystery, and a satirical examination of isolation and workplace intrigue. It takes place in the near future and centers on Didi, an anxiety-driven millennial who regularly turns to her steady friend Zev, an app designer on leave because his cat was traumatized by an apartment fire, for solutions to everyday complications. As the apps Zev recommends begin to conflict with each other, Didi must come to grips with the competing elements of her life.
O’Reilly says that Pile of Cats will continue to produce two shows per year — “humorous and biting theater about personal identity, gender and sexual diversity, and mental health. And never any violence.”
[Editor's note: the subhead has been edited to reflect that Jason Compton is not co-founder of Pile of Cats.]
