Herding Cats: Yuri Kuklachyov

“Sometimes it is not clear whether I train cats or they train me. It is impossible to make them do anything. Cats are very much like women. There is something mysterious about them both. They both feel a need for kindness and know the way to make you feel less tired.”

Born on April 12, 1949, Yuri Kuklachyov decided at eight to be a clown. On the eve of his entrance exams to Circus School, he cut his foot badly and had to take his exam on crutches (doctors told him he would be crippled for life). Thanks to his amazing perseverance, he not only was accepted to the school, but overcame his injury within a year. 

To Kuklachyov, a clown is not simply someone who knows how to make people laugh, but someone who can do anything. So, in circus school, he learned rope-walking, acrobatics and juggling. Cats entered his life much later, and by chance, when he saved a freezing kitten from a Moscow park and included him in his performances. 

In 1976, Kuklachyov gave his first ‘cat’ performance, creating quite a sensation. Though he was the first person to refute conventional wisdom that cats were untrainable, Kuklachyov does not consider himself “a trainer.” Instead, he said he merely uses kindness and patience, saying it is sometimes not clear whether he trains the cats or the cats train him. Cats cannot be forced into anything, he said, but if they trust you, they will do anything you want.

Kuklachyov has very little spare time, as he and his family spend most of their life with his cats. He often works nights, as the cats prefer night rehearsals. Whenever he has spare time, he spends it reading. During performances, his wife Elena helps with the animals as second clown. Elder son Dmitry also works in the theatre – among the 120 cats there, 50 are Dmitry’s pupils (Dmitry recently staged Faust with his cats). Like many animal trainers, Yuri Kuklachyov prefers fruit and vegetables to meat. He likes simple food: borshch, shchi and kasha are his favorites. 

Kuklachyov’s Theatre

In 1990, Yuri Kuklachyov founded “The House of Cats,” the world’s only cat theatre. Today, it is one of the most popular attractions in Moscow, for both kids and their parents. His cats walk on tightropes, climb poles, dance to music, jump through hoops, push toy trains, balance balls on their noses and leapfrog over humans. Dressed in a clown costume and wearing full makeup, Kuklachyov himself appears in every show. The cats understand him perfectly, reacting to his tone rather than his words.

The theater is privately owned, which means Kuklachyov has to find his own sponsors, including a major cat food maker, which donates 60 cans of food per day. Ticket prices are low, so performances are often sold out. 

Each season, the theater premiers a new show, tailored to the cats’ individual talents and interests. Kuklachyov observes the cats at play and judges what they like doing. In fact, the cats often prompt the plots of the plays themselves. That was the case with “The Cat and the Cook,” one of the theater’s first and most famous plays. The idea of the play came to Kuklachyov when he found the cat Strelka (“Arrow”) sleeping inside a big pan with her furry tail sticking out. He took Strelka out, but the cat immediately got back in the pan again and again.

Kuklachyov’s theater has won many awards and has toured all over the world. In France, it received an award for being the most original theater in the world. The troupe was a great success in Japan, where cats are considered sacred animals, and The House of Cats was even invited to make its home for two months every year in Tokyo’s Ginza Theater. 

The animal quarantine in Great Britain made a tour of Russian cats impossible, so Kuklachyov went to Great Britain alone and managed – in just three months – to train English cats and prepare a new performance with local talent. Kuklachyov has traveled all over the world and cats, he said, are the same everywhere.

Still, Kuklachyov does have his favorites. He considers Siberian cats and tabbies to be the most gifted actors. He also has several international actors in his troupe, including one from England, one from Japan and a completely bald Sphynx from Argentina. In fact, one of the famous cat trainer’s dreams is to create a living Cat Museum, showcasing a representative of every one of the world’s 300+ species.

Some 120 cats live in the theater – some are former strays, some were given as presents, and some were born in the theatre. Six dogs (which, according to Kuklachyov, are much easier to train) also live in the theatre, performing small parts in the plays. Each cat has its own little space behind a glass-fronted corridor, where they eat and sleep. Male and female cats live separately. The names given to the cats often depend on their character, habits and even favorite food. Among Kuklachyov’s actors are Kartoshka (“Potato” – who is fond of potatoes), Morkovka (“Carrot” – because of her bright red fur), Banana, Pozharnik (“Fireman” – who hates to have anyone smoke near him), Kilka (“Sprat”), Tangens (“Tangent”), Shnurok (“Shoelace” – who loves to untie guests’ shoelaces) and Sokol (“Falcon” – who used to live in a composer’s family and could sing; this cat performed for 25 years). 

“… To train means to make them obey. But in our case, the animals are real actors. If you ask me whether I have favorites among my cats, I will answer you in a following way: if you ask a mother which of her children she loves most, she will not tell you …”