Cats – ending after four years
Over the past 5 months I have been lucky enough to be touring with the Really Useful Groups production of Cats, and as it comes to an end this Sunday in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, I wanted to reflect on this amazing experience.
The tour has been traveling through Australia and Asia for over four years and has seen hundreds of performers pass through its ranks, and a select handful have made it through the entire tour with out their minds and their bodies intact. I would like to personally recognise Monique Chanel Pitsakis, Mischana Dellora-Cornish, Markham Gannon, Brian Gillespie and James Cooper for their amazing achievement in completing the entire run. My body is barely making it through now after a few months and I would have to say that the first week of rehearsals in Sydney was the most pain I have ever experienced in my life. I can only imagine what it must feel like after years.
Cats is like nothing I have ever been involved with before. The cast is a true ensemble, helped by the fact that almost everybody covers someone or joined the company as a swing or a different role.
This feeling of community and equality is communicated to you very strongly from the first day of rehearsals with Jo-Anne Robinson, who has been involved with Cats since its inception in London 30 years ago, running an improvisation with all of the new cast. Everyone was down on the rehearsal room floor crawling around and sniffing each other and suddenly the thought crossed my mind; “Oh my god, I am sniffing Lea Salonga!”
Lea joined us to play Grizabella in the 5 week Manila season of Cats, and from the very start was given no special treatment. She was thrown straight into impros and chore and was crawly across the rehearsal room floor exactly the same as the other 8 of us who were new to the cast. This was just one of the surreal moments I found myself in over the next few weeks of rehearsals.
Another cast binding experience is the pain, we were told this very early on to just accept it, that everyone in the cast is feeling it, accept it and know that the person next to you is hurting just as much if not more, it does become a unifying feature of the experience. People are not meant to be cats, basically, and this show proves it. There are very few shows where we have a full cast, and it is not rare that the cast changes go beyond what the swings can cover and Sharyn Whinny (the resident director) or Markham Gannon (her assistant) don their unitard again and crawl back onstage.
The show itself is a complex one, based on T.S.Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.
It documents the one night a year when a group of cats come together to choose who should ascend to the “Heavyside Layer.” There is no direct through line for the audience to grasp: to me it’s like watching Shakespeare, it actually takes some effort and commitment on the audiences behalf to get below surface and really grasp what is going on.
This adds just one more challenge to the show; in order for the audience to understand the piece it must be acted with absolute clarity, danced until you barely move and sung in every style from rock to opera.
The offstage side has been equally as amazing as well. Having the opportunity to spend a decent amount of time in Manila, Philippines, a country that should really be pushing more for the Australian tourist dollar. Having the opportunity to not only work alongside the likes of Lea Salonga, but to play a weekly poker game with her. Being thrown the most outrages party I have ever been to by a Pilipino socialite, with fire twirlers, pole dancers, complimentary massages and take home cat paraphernalia. Finally to be given the opportunity to travel around Taiwan to cities that most people in the world have never heard of. All fantastic experiences.
I would like to salute the hard work that everyone has put in over the years. Congratulate everyone that has been involved at any point along the way and mostly I would like to thank the people responsible for giving me the opportunity to be part of it.
Cats is a show I never thought would be on my resume, but I am extremely glad it is, and would jump at the chance to do it again.
