PURRPLE CAT CIC
THE STORY SO FAR...
Over the past 20 years Danny McAvoy has written a number of completely new and original musicals based around challenging moments in history when, against often overwhelming odds, people had to choose to stand up for what is right.
When Covid struck and closed down live theatre, Danny decided to make serialised radio productions of two of his musicals, Little Ships, about a mixed English and French family in 1940, and Uprising!, about the 1549 peasants uprising in Norfolk. Each of these musicals explored the moral and practical dilemmas each person faced when confronted by radical change. Danny hired a super group of professional actor/singers and worked with them online to create five-episode radio productions for each musical. These productions were broadcast during 2020/21 by radio stations in the UK and elsewhere to, so the radio stations told us, a total of around 200,000 listeners for each episode.
In 2022, moved by his own brother’s story of addiction, poor mental health and rough sleeping, Danny set out to better understand the causes and consequences of homelessness and rough sleeping and to explore harm, exclusion and recovery in the modern world. Out of his research came his musical Eddie & Jenny, from which he first created another radio production that was broadcast leading up to Christmas 2022.
This work uses storytelling to educate audiences, challenge harmful attitudes, and promote understanding of the consequences of poverty, trauma, and social breakdown. In June 2025, with support from Arts Council England, we delivered pilot performances of Eddie & Jenny at The Phoenix Theatre Exeter, reaching full public audiences and generating strong evidence of attitude change and increased awareness and empathy.
We are currently building a new bigger production of Eddie & Jenny that we plan to tour to eight major theatres in the West Country in the first half of 2027 and then take the story to many other parts of the UK.
WHAT WE DO
We stage all new socially aware and responsible professional musicals
and develop new musical theatre talent
​
STAGED MUSICALS BY DANNY MCAVOY
Little Ships
In 2023 we staged a pilot production of Danny McAvoy's original musical Little Ships at the Barnfield Theatre Exeter This production was funded by Danny. Little Ships is a two act, 140 minute long original story set in war-time England in 1940. It is about growing up, taking risks, finding self and inner strength, of taking responsibility and overcoming adversity. It is also a story of family commitment, fidelity and love.
Our Little Ships pilot production has its own website at:
​
​
Eddie & Jenny
​
With Arts Council funding we staged Danny's new blues musical Eddie & Jenny at the Exeter Phoenix Theatre on 16th of June 2025 and we had great audience feedback! This original musical is about homelessness, substance dependency and mental health. We worked in partnership with the charities Waythough Together , The Amber Foundation and Julian House and the people they each serve in developing our story and script , See much more and hear some of the the music from the earlier radio production of Eddie & Jenny at: ​​
​
​
​
​
NEW MUSICALS & NEW TALENT
New writers, actors, singers, dancers and stage crew
Central to Purrple Cat CIC is the desire and drive to help new people get into musical theatre. We offer opportunities for new people to act, sing and dance alongside our professionals and we enable them to shadow and learn from our professional cast and crew.
Our pilot casts for Little Ships and ~Eddie & Jenny had a professional creative team and a core of professional actors, It also had a significant number of performing arts students and 2023 graduates of The University of Exeter and Plymouth and Bristol Universities who were all super.
​
INTERESTED IN BEING PART OF EDDIE & JENNY ?
THEN GET TOUCH
