Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a Tony-nominated play by Tennessee Williams. The play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955.
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[edit] Plot
It is the story of a Southern family in crisis, focusing on the turbulent relationship of a wife and husband, Maggie "The Cat" and Brick Pollitt, and their interaction with Brick's family over the course of one evening gathering at the family estate in Mississippi, ostensibly to celebrate the birthday of patriarch and tycoon "Big Daddy" Pollitt. Maggie, through wit and beauty, has escaped a childhood of desperate poverty to marry into the wealthy Pollitt family, but finds herself suffering in an unfulfilling marriage. Brick, an aging football hero, has neglected his wife and further infuriates her by ignoring his brother's attempts to gain control of the family fortune. Brick's indifference, and his nearly continuous drinking, date back to the recent suicide of his friend Skipper. Unbeknown to Big Daddy he has cancer and will not live to see another birthday; his doctors and his family have conspired to keep this information from him and his wife. His relatives are in attendance and attempt to present themselves in the best possible light, hoping to receive the definitive share of Big Daddy's enormous wealth.
[edit] Themes
The central theme of the play is mendacity, a word Brick uses to describe his disgust with the world. Moreover it revolves around the lies in the aging and decaying Southern society. With one exception, the entire family lies to Big Daddy and Big Mama, as do the doctors. Big Daddy lies to his wife.
The play alludes to the presence of homosexuality in Southern society and examines the complicated rules of social conduct in this culture. The Hays Code required that the film could not be clear that Brick had sexual desire for his buddy, and thus toned down the original play's critique of homophobia and sexism.
Tennessee Williams himself was unclear about the nature of Brick's feelings for his friend Skipper while developing different versions of the play.
There are two versions of the play, one of which was influenced by director Elia Kazan, who directed the play on Broadway, and another which was performed for the first time in London, England.
[edit] Stage productions
The original Broadway production, which opened in 1955, starred Barbara Bel Geddes as Maggie; Ben Gazzara as Brick; Burl Ives as Big Daddy; Mildred Dunnock as Big Mama; Pat Hingle as Gooper; and Madeleine Sherwood as Mae. Bel Geddes was the only cast member to get nominated for a Tony Award, and Elia Kazan was nominated for Best Director of a Play. Both Ives and Sherwood would reprise their roles in the 1958 film version.
A 1974 revival featured Elizabeth Ashley, Keir Dullea, Fred Gwynne and Kate Reid. Ashley was nominated for a Tony Award.
A 1990 revival featured Kathleen Turner in her Broadway debut. Charles Durning, as Big Daddy, received a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. Daniel Hugh Kelly was Brick, and Polly Holliday was Big Mama. Both Turner and Holliday were also nominated for Tonys.
A 2003 revival received lukewarm reviews despite the presence of film stars Ashley Judd and Jason Patric. Only Ned Beatty, as Big Daddy, and Margo Martindale, as Big Mama, were singled out for impressive performances. Martindale received a Tony nomination.
A 2004 production at the Kennedy Center featured Mary Stuart Masterson as Maggie, Jeremy Davidson As Brick, George Grizzard as Big Daddy, Dana Ivey as Big Mamma, Emily Skinner as Mae.
[edit] Film and television adaptations
The big-screen version of the play was made in 1958 by MGM, and starred Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, Burl Ives, who reprised his stage role as Big Daddy, Judith Anderson, Jack Carson and Madeleine Sherwood. Although it was very discreet in referring to the supposed homosexual themes, and although it had a somewhat revised "third act", it was highly acclaimed and was nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman both received Oscar nominations for their performances, and most critics agreed that the film provided both them and Burl Ives with their finest screen roles up to that time. Curiously, Burl Ives was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor that year, and won, but not for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He won it for his role in the epic Western The Big Country, featuring an all-star cast. Reportedly, MGM executives had mistakenly put Ives' name in the wrong category during the Academy Award nominations process, although Ives could certainly be said to have played a supporting role in Cat. It is possible that Cat may have been too controversial for the Academy voters - the film won no Oscars, and the Best Picture award went to Gigi that year.
In 1976, a television version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was produced, starring the then husband-and-wife team of Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner, and featuring Lord Laurence Olivier as Big Daddy and Maureen Stapleton as Big Mama. It was largely panned by the critics.
Another television version was produced in 1985, starring Jessica Lange, Tommy Lee Jones, Rip Torn, Kim Stanley and Penny Fuller. This version brought back all the sexual innuendoes that the 1958 film had muted. Both Stanley and Fuller were nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Special, and Stanley went on to win.
[edit] Famous quotations
- What's that smell in this room? Didn't you notice it, Brick? Didn't you notice the powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room?
- Maggie: I'll win, alright.
Brick: Win what? What is the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof?
Maggie: Just staying on it, I guess. As long as she can. - I'm not living with you! We occupy the same cage, that's all.
- The only thing Brick can carry is a football and a highball.
- Maggie, you are ruinin' my liquor.
| The Plays of Tennessee Williams |
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| Adam and Eve on a Ferry, And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens, At Liberty, Auto Da Fé, Baby Doll (screenplay), Battle of Angels, Beauty Is the Word, Camino Real, Cairo! Shanghai! Bombay!, Candles to the Sun, The Case of the Crushed Petunias, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Chalky White Substance, Clothes for a Summer Hotel, Creve Coeur, The Dark Room, Demolition Downtown, The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, The Fat Man's Wife, The Frosted Glass Coffin, Fugitive Kind, Garden District, The Gentleman Callers (screenplay), The Glass Menagerie, Grand, Hello from Bertha, A House Not Meant to Stand, I Can't Imagine Tomorrow, In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel, I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix, Kingdom of Earth / Seven Descents of Myrtle, Kirche, Küche und Kinder (play), The Lady of Larkspur Lotion, The Last of My Solid Gold Watches, Lifeboat Drill, The Long Goodbye, Lord Byron's Love Letter (libretto), The Magic Tower, The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, Moony's Kid Don't Cry, The Mutilated, The Night of the Iguana, Not about Nightingales, The Notebook of Trigorin, Now the Cats with Jewelled Claws, The One Exception, Orpheus Descending, Out Cry, The Palooka, A Perfect Anaysis Given by a Parrot, Period of Adjustment, The Pink Room, Portait of a Madonna, The Purification, The Red Devil Battery Sign, The Rose Tattoo, Something Unspoken, Slapstick Tragedy (The Mutilated and The Gnädiges Fräulein), Something Cloudy, Something Clear, Spring Storm, Stairs to the Roof, Steps Must be Gentle, A Streetcar Named Desire, Suddenly, Last Summer, Summer and Smoke, Summer at the Lake, Small Craft Warnings, Sweet Bird of Youth, Tiger Tail, This Is (An Entertainment), This is Peaceable Kingdom/Good Luck God, This Property is Condemned, Three Players of a Summer Game, Twenty-Seven Wagons Full of Cotton, The Two-Character Play, Vieux Carré, Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis?, You Touched Me |
