Created about 30 years ago, the Moscow Cat Theatre is the only place in the world that engages cats as actors in its performances.

Axar.az reports citing Anadolu Agency.

In the theatre, the cats, which are considered as hardly trained animals, ride bike, walk on a wire, perform acrobatics and aerial acts.

"A cat will never do anything under constraint, but it is possible to make an arrangement with cats, using their natural abilities and needs. And, if there is love and mutual understanding... In general, love and respect give more than banal training. It is impossible to punish a cat backstage, and then, make her perform tricks onstage. With cats it doesn't work," Dmitry Kuklachev, theatre's Art Director First Deputy, told in an interview with Anadolu Agency.

The idea of creating a cat theatre appeared many years ago, when now theatre's Art Director Yury Kuklachev was beginning his carrier as a circus clown and searched for his own signature move, a star turn, his son and the bearer of the family, Dmitry Kuklachev said.

"One day he found a kitten, it was very communicative, cheerful. And during a curtain call, it so happened that he came out with the kitten on his shoulder. And he saw that the spectators warmly reacted to this. So he started developing the tricks with cats and after 20 years in the circus established his own theatre," he said.

About 200 tailed, hairy performers live in the theatre, most of them are acting in 12 performances, that the theatre offers to their spectators, about 30 cats are "on the pension".

"We have 12 different performances in our theatre. I'm saying it proudly, because in a contrast to dramatic theatres, in our case, we need 4-5 years to present a new show," the artist says.

It takes about a year to prepare a new performer, from its first appearance in the theatre to the entrance upon the stage. The cats have to go through two castings, first, talent one and then, tests, confirming their good health as they have to live in the theatre's commune.