After seeing the film CATS, I realized something new…or perhaps I imagined something new. Victoria the White Cat is reborn from the Heviside Layer. While this is never directly expressed in the film or the stage musical, I feel it is implied in the original song ‘Memories’ and the new song ‘Beautiful Ghosts’.
*I will say that I have never seen the stage musical revue CATS. I knew enough about the plot and songs to know it would be a bit disjointed. Although, 1980s glam punk aesthetics mixed with 1930s children’s poetry is a daring combination. Also, musicals are expensive! So, this theory is based on my brave viewing of the film CATS before the updated version was released.
The Heviside Layer is an actual layer in the Earth’s atmosphere. In the CATS universe, it is a magical layer or dimension in the sky where a cat’s soul is repurposed into another life via a rebirth on Earth. It anchors the longstanding phrase that cats have nine lives. Old Deut., a leader amongst the Jellicle Cats; the name of a loose collection of feral and domestic cats in London. She chooses which cat will be sent to the Heviside Layer during an annual ball to have their current life ended and a new life regenerated. Grisabella, the Glamour Cat is chosen for a new life in CATS and ascends to the sky…but in the meantime, Victoria is a new cat introduced to the Jellicles having been tossed in an alley by a human. But, where did she come from?
Headcanon is a term in fan fiction where a fan imagines something in their head to assert it as canon and part of the official story line. Typically, headcanon is created as the origins of a character or story and the rest of the plot follows the same general path as the author intended. Some fan fiction is not meant to be poetic or polished, it merely communicates the new idea.
Have a Pleasant Day
-Rae Pleasant
Cynthia Onrubia in CATS, rights belong to the performer and photographer.
“When the dawn comes, tonight will be a memory too and a new day will begin.”
-Memories, Andrew Llyod Webber
Year after year at the Jellicle Ball, a cat is chosen to ascend to the Heviside Layer and return to Earth reborn and renewed. While it is known amongst Jellicle Cats that Old Duet. has lived 99 lives, it has yet to be seen if a new cat can truly be reborn from the Heviside Layer. These cats are indeed reborn with each passing year carrying the same essence, but with a new purpose in a new body. They are reborn as kittens in all corners of the globe with stripes or spots in coats of every color. However, the price that is paid is forgetting their old life and becoming innocent to the world.
For the first time, a Jellicle Cat has returned to the clan. When Victoria is discarded by a human in an alley, she is incidentally reunited with the alley cats that she once called family in another life. Victoria was reborn with a fluffy white coat as the runt of a litter. So, the human that owns the mother cat places Victoria in a pillowcase, drives to an alley, and dumps the kitten. The alley cats crowd the pillowcase and sniff Victoria’s body. Something is strange about her, but very familiar to the Jellicle nose. The story of CATS revolves around Victoria because it follows a rebirth and reconnection for the first time. Victoria knows nothing of life on the streets and becomes acquainted with the Jellicles and their ways just in time for the annual Ball. Every now and then Victoria will dance a jig in perfect time or sing a lyric in perfect rhyme. Memories are coming back to her as fragmented feelings. Old Deut. knows the truth at first glance. In all her 99 lives, she has finally witnessed a Jellicle come home.
Victoria showed a genuine connection with Grisabella’s heart and circumstances, so Old Deut. trusted Victoria’s instinct by selecting the Glamour Cat to go to the Heviside Layer. Old Deut. is special because each time she is reborn, she retains her memory from the pervious life and holds vast knowledge. She knows that Victoria has been reborn twice; once from a book store cat who loved to prowl the alleys at night with the Jellicles and once from a show cat who won best in show. This explains Victoria’s sensitivity and grace…her essence remains the same.
One day, when the time is right, Grisabella will be reborn as a kitten too. She will have no memory of her short time with Macavity and her subsequent life on the streets. When Macavity draped her in fur from the hides of fluffy lap dogs and diamonds stolen from posh human apartments before rejecting her for a younger cat, Bombalurina, while being bullied by Cassadra. The images and words of that life will be forgotten, but the sting of loneliness may creep up without warning and the temptation for adoration or shiny things might be hard to fight. This is because Grisabella is the kitten’s beautiful ghost, just as Victoria has hers.
“And the memories were lost long ago, but at least you have beautiful ghosts”
-Beautiful Ghosts, Taylor Swift and Andrew Lloyd Webber
