| Cat on a Hot Tin Roof | |
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1st edition cover (New Directions) |
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| Written by | Tennessee Williams |
| Characters |
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| Date premiered | 24 March 1955 |
| Place premiered | Morosco Theatre New York City, New York |
| Original language | English |
| Subject | Death, Mendacity, Relationships, Homosexuality, & Alcoholism |
| Genre | Drama |
| Setting | Brick and Margaret's room on the Pollitt plantation in Mississippi |
| IBDB profile | |
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a play by Tennessee Williams. One of Williams's best-known works and his personal favorite,[1] the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955. Set in "the bed-sitting room of a plantation home in the Mississippi Delta"[2] of Big Daddy Pollitt, a wealthy cotton tycoon, the play examines the relationships among members of Big Daddy's family, primarily between his son Brick and Brick's wife Maggie the "Cat".
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof features several recurring motifs, such as social mores, greed, superficiality, decay, sexual desire, and death. Dialogue throughout is often rendered phonetically to represent accents of the American South.
The play was adapted as a motion picture of the same name in 1958, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman as Maggie and Brick, respectively. Williams made substantial excisions and alterations to the play for a revival in 1974. This has been the version used for most subsequent revivals, which have been numerous.
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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is the story of a Southern family in crisis, especially the husband and wife, Brick and Margaret (usually called Maggie or "Maggie the Cat"), and their interaction with Brick's family over the course of one evening gathering at the family estate in Mississippi. The party is to celebrate the birthday of patriarch Big Daddy Pollitt, "the Delta's biggest cotton-planter"[2] and that he has returned from the Ochsner Clinic with a clean bill of health. All family members (except Big Daddy and his wife, Big Mama) are aware that Big Daddy is dying of cancer; they have lied to Big Daddy and Big Mama to spare them pain on his birthday.
Maggie, witty and beautiful, has escaped a childhood of poverty to marry into the wealthy Pollitt family, but finds herself unfulfilled. The family is aware that Brick has not slept with Maggie for a long time, which has strained their marriage. Brick, an aging football hero, infuriates her by ignoring his brother Gooper's attempts to gain control of the family fortune. Brick's indifference and his near-continuous drinking relate to the recent suicide of his friend Skipper. Maggie fears that Brick's malaise will ensure that Gooper and his wife Mae end up with Big Daddy's inheritance.
Through the evening, Brick, Big Daddy and Maggie—and the entire family—separately must face down the issues which they have bottled up inside. Big Daddy attempts a reconciliation with the alcoholic Brick. Both Big Daddy and Maggie separately confront Brick about the true nature of his relationship with his pro football buddy Skipper, which appears to be the source of Brick's sorrow and the cause of his alcoholism.
Brick explains to Big Daddy how Maggie, convinced that Brick and Skipper were engaged in a homosexual relationship, slept with Skipper out of revenge. He thinks Skipper's self-questioning about himself and his friendship with Brick led to his suicide. Disgusted with "mendacity", Brick tells Big Daddy that the report from the clinic was falsified for his sake. Big Daddy storms out of the room, leading the party gathered out on the gallery to drift inside. Maggie, Brick, Mae, Gooper, and Doc Baugh (the family's physician) decide to tell Big Mama the truth about his illness and she is devastated by the news. Gooper and Mae start to discuss the division of the Pollitt estate. Big Mama defends her husband from Gooper and Mae's proposals.
Big Daddy reappears and makes known his plans to die peacefully. Attempting to secure Brick's inheritance, Maggie tells him she is pregnant. Gooper and Mae know this is a lie, but Big Mama and Big Daddy believe that Maggie "has life". When they are alone again, Maggie locks away the liquor and promises Brick that she will "make the lie true," revealing both her will to be satisfied and her enduring forgiveness and love for him.
Mendacity is a recurring theme throughout the play. Brick uses the word to express his disgust with the complicated rules of social conduct in Southern society and culture. With the exception of Brick, the entire family lies to Big Daddy and Big Mama about his terminal cancer. Furthermore, Big Daddy lies to his wife, Gooper and Mae exhibit avaricious motives in their attempt to secure Big Daddy's estate and a central lie of the play—the concealment of the terminal nature of Big Daddy's colon cancer—all contribute to the dishonesty present in the play.
In some cases, characters refuse to believe certain statements, leading them to believe they are lies. A recurring phrase is the line, "Wouldn't it be funny if that was true?", said by both Big Daddy and Brick after Big Mama and Maggie (respectively) claim unwavering loyalty during the crises. The characters' statements of feeling are no longer clear-cut truths or lies; instead, they become subject more to certainty or uncertainty. This phrase is the last line of the play.[3]
The ways in which humans deal with death is also at the focus of this play, as is the futility and nihilism some encounter when confronted with imminent mortality. Similar ideas are found in Dylan Thomas's Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, which Williams excerpted and added as an epigraph to his 1974 version.[4] These lines are appropriate, as Thomas wrote the poem to his own dying father.[5]
Additionally, in one of his many drafts,[6] in a footnote on Big Daddy's action in the third act, Williams deems Cat on a Hot Tin Roof a "play which says only one affirmative thing about 'Man's Fate': that he has it still in his power not to squeal like a pig but to keep a tight mouth about it."[6]
There are many versions of the play script, one of which was influenced by director Elia Kazan, who directed the play on Broadway,[7] and another which was performed for the first time in London.
The original Broadway production, which opened in 1955, was directed by Elia Kazan and 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.[8] Bel Geddes was the only cast member nominated for a Tony Award, and Kazan was nominated for Best Director of a Play. Both Ives and Sherwood would reprise their roles in the 1958 film version. The cast also featured the southern blues duo Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry and had as Gazzara's understudy the young Cliff Robertson. When Gazzara left the play, Jack Lord replaced him. Others from the original Broadway production included R.G. Armstrong as Doctor Baugh; Fred Stewart as Reverend Tooker; Janice Dunn as Trixie; Seth Edwards as Sonny; Maxwell Glanville as Lacey; Pauline Hahn as Dixie; Darryl Richard as Buster; Eva Vaughn Smith as Daisy; and Musa Williams as Sookey.[9] In London, Kim Stanley starred as Maggie.
A 1974 revival by the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut featured Elizabeth Ashley, Keir Dullea, Fred Gwynne, Kate Reid, and Charles Siebert. Ashley was nominated for a Tony Award. For this production, Williams restored much of the text which he had removed from the original one at the insistence of Elia Kazan. He included a revised third act and made substantial revisions elsewhere.[10] According to Ashley, Williams allowed the actors to examine his original notes and various drafts of the script, and to make additions to the dialogue. When this production moved from Connecticut to Broadway, the part of Lacey was omitted and the number of Mae and Gooper's children reduced to three.[11] In that same decade, John Carradine and Mercedes McCambridge toured in a road company production as Big Daddy and Big Mama, respectively.
The 1988 London National Theatre production, directed by Howard Davies, starred Ian Charleson, Lindsay Duncan, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, and Eric Porter.
A revival in 1990 featured Kathleen Turner, who was nominated for a Tony for her performance as Maggie, though New York Magazine called her "hopelessly lost...in this limp production." 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. Holliday was also nominated for a Tony.
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 Mama, and Emily Skinner as Mae.
In 2008, an all-African-American production directed by Debbie Allen opened on Broadway. Terrence Howard made his Broadway debut as Brick, alongside stage veterans James Earl Jones (Big Daddy), Phylicia Rashad (Big Mama), Anika Noni Rose (Maggie) and Lisa Arrindell Anderson (Mae). In November 2009, the production moved to London's West End, where Adrian Lester played Brick and Sanaa Lathan was Maggie.[12] The West End Production received the 2010 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Revival of a Play.
In 2010, a production of the play opened at Cambridge University's renowned ADC Theatre.[13] And in January 2011, a production to mark Williams' 100 birthday was presented at Vienna's English Theatre, Vienna, Austria. From May 3, 2011 to October 23, 2011, 'Cat' is being performed at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada.
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The big-screen adaptation of the play was made in 1958 by MGM, and starred Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Judith Anderson, and Jack Carson, with Burl Ives and Madeleine Sherwood reprising their stage roles. The Hays Code limited Brick's portrayal of sexual desire for Skipper, and diminished the original play's critique of homophobia and sexism. Williams was reportedly unhappy with the screenplay, which removed almost all of the homosexual themes and revised the third act section to include a lengthy scene of reconciliation between Brick and Big Daddy. Paul Newman, the film's star, had also stated his disappointment with the adaptation. Despite this, the film 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. Most critics agreed that the film provided both them and Burl Ives with their finest screen roles up to that time. Burl Ives was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor that year, and won, but it was for his role in the epic Western The Big Country. 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 Laurence Olivier as Big Daddy and Maureen Stapleton as Big Mama. It received mixed reviews.
In 1985 a television version was produced by American Playhouse, starring Jessica Lange, Tommy Lee Jones, Rip Torn, Kim Stanley, David Dukes, and Penny Fuller. This adaptation revived the sexual innuendos which had been muted in the 1958 film. Both Stanley and Fuller were nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Special, and Stanley went on to win. It was a reunion of sorts for Stanley and Lange, who received Oscar nominations for playing mother and daughter in 1982's Frances.. This production is considered by Williams scholars and fans alike to be the finest version of the piece to be put on screen.
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