Comedy writer Caroline Gold is proving to be a class act. Her latest work, Howard and Mimi, has been awarded Best Play at the Fringe Report awards.
The play is about the relationship between a dog (Howard) and a cat (Mimi) as they are forced to learn to live together when their owners move in with each other.
“It’s a comedy but with a serious message about tolerance and platonic love,” Ms Gold, who is in her early 40s, tells People. “The play sounds cute and fluffy but it isn’t. It is as much about domestic animals as South Park is about eight-year-olds,” she says.
The award is particularly poignant for Ms Gold, who wrote it for her mother, who died last year. “She knew I had the idea and kept on telling me that I was onto a winner. She kind of heckled me to do it.”
Ms Gold suffers from depression. “I found that platonic love, and not necessarily romantic love, is really important when suffering from depression, so I wrote the play as a celebration of that.
“What helps,” she adds, “is hearing people laugh and clap. It cheers me up.”
Howard and Mimi, which casts Jewish actress Natalie Haverstock as Mimi, was showing at the Hen & Chicken Theatre in Islington, London; The Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh; and the Pentameters, Hampstead. Ms Gold’s previous play, Clinically Famous, also earned critical acclaim and is due to be translated into Finnish.
Ms Gold has worked with high-profile names including Mark Thomas, Lynda Bellingham and Eddie Izzard.
A former stand-up, Ms Gold lives in Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire.
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