Tails from The Rodent Shakespeare Company : Cats!

Let me take you to the west of the city of Newcastle, to an historic building that has seen the comings and goings of theatrical performances spanning three centuries. Let me guide you across its well-trodden stage, where pantomimes and dramas, operas and ballets, comics and musicals have played to people of all ages, backgrounds and tastes. Let me sneak you down beneath the stage with the aid of a trap-door, among the workings of the theatre’s old mechanics – shh! We must be stealth-like and not make a peep, as the story goes that here beneath the stage dwells a small community of mice who have lived and performed generation after generation - as colourful and theatrical a troop of players as ever there was. Few have managed to catch sight of these legendary rodents, but many a tale has been told of their adventures and how close they came to being demolished along with the old theatre! Sit down, make yourselves comfortable and I will tell you a story about these miniature thespians …

One autumn evening, the members of the Rodent Shakespeare Company were rehearsing their upcoming musical “Cats” which was ironic, being as they were mice. This irony was totally lost on the mice who took their art very seriously. When called upon to play a cat, these mice would work until they got into the very mind and soul of a cat. A very ambitious young up and coming performer called Eduardo de Gray had been cast in the demanding role of Mistoffelees and he was talking excitedly about an idea he had for a very exciting trick that he believed would make the audience gasp in amazement! He was going to shoot lightning bolts from his paws...

“I’m going to shoot lightning bolts from my paws”, he announced dramatically to the group.

Now the Director of the show, Dame Evie Doe, was very experienced and wise and more than anything knew that the budget for the show was extremely tight. Budgets are always tight - she had once done a production of The Mousetrap with no cheese. Dame Evie could not see how they would be in a position to stretch to pyrotechnics, much as they might catch the eye (literally). They would have to come up with another way of showing off the magic of Mistoffelees without it costing an arm and a leg and without getting the City Council involved for insurance purposes.

“Now that does sound impressive, Eduardo, I agree with you” said Dame Evie, “however, it also sounds potentially rather dangerous and we cannot risk jeopardising one of our most important cast members”

“Oh” said Eduardo. “I didn’t think of that. But I have to do something really special and magical otherwise the audience will not remember me and realise what a special and magical cat I am... I mean, Mr Misoffelees is.”

“Perhaps”, suggested Dame Evie, “you could perform a levitation on one of the other cats. I do believe that would be a very spectacular illusion”.

Eduardo was visibly disappointed however he brightened up when the others spoke animatedly about this idea. “Oh yes! A levitating cat, what could be more spectacular than that?” they said.

And so the mice worked tirelessly week in and week out, dedicating hours to learning their lines, perfecting the songs from the show and Eduardo and Dame Evie carefully developed the levitation trick with the help of their seasoned technical director, Barty Buck. It was mapped out, practised and ran through time and again so that the audience would be perfectly convinced that a cat was floating mid-air with no wires or secret gadgets, only the magic of Mistoffelees.

As opening night arrived the group of mice involved in the show were tired but excited, worn out from all of their hard work, drilled within an inch of their lives to remember each scene, each cue and each entrance and exit, full of pent up nervous energy to put on their show to a live audience. This was what it was all about. “Act one beginner’s call” the voice of Jerrie the Stage Manager sounded over the PA system backstage.

The audience of various spiders, daddy longlegs, beetles, mice and bats from all around the city were asked politely to take their seats ready for the show to begin.  There was a drum roll and the orchestra struck up the overture – curtain up and the performance began. The audience members were transported from their usual humdrum day to day lives to a magical place where mice were cats and the cats (called the Jellicles) sang beautifully and danced to the music, leaping and spinning under the dazzling spotlight. They forgot their troubles, all of their anxieties about school and work and money... everything except for the characters in the show, watching to see who would ascend to the Heaviside Layer (which seemed to be a kind of cat heaven). When it came time for Eduardo’s levitation scene, he was calm as a still sea before a storm – not a ripple of nerves could be seen. Everyone watching was spellbound, Mistofelees magically raised up another cat as if made of feathers! The audience burst into rapturous applause.

Unfortunately, Eduardo had decided that in addition to the levitation he was actually going to shoot lightning bolts from his paws and had secretly ordered some Exploding Flash Cartridges. As the cast came onto the stage at the end of the performance to take their bows, Eduardo pressed the special button in his paw to set off the lightning bolt.

“Whoosh” out shot a 20 foot jagged flame from Mistofelees’ little paw, singeing a number of sets of whiskers belonging to members of the orchestra who had not anticipated this turn of events. The flame set fire to the red velvet curtain round the orchestra pit and screams were heard from the spiders in the audience who were especially terrified of the flames!

Fortunately, the mouse playing the tuba was a very quick thinker and, realising that he had built up in his instrument a great deal of spit by that point in the show, he tipped up his enormous brass instrument and used the liquid to put out the fire quick sharp. The cast and crew, the whole orchestra and the entire audience burst into cheers and applause and the tuba player took a very low bow of appreciation.

The orchestra struck up a rousing last song as the cast finally took their bows.

The rest of the week was a sell-out success, and though none of the performances were quite as dramatic as the first one everyone agreed that Cats, as performed by the Mice of the Rodent Shakespeare Company, was a resounding success.