Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1966)

Performances

March 17-19, 22-26, 1966

Venue

Community Players Theatre

Synopsis

In a plantation house, a family celebrates the sixty-fifth birthday of Big Daddy, as they sentimentally dub him. The mood is somber, despite the festivities, because a number of evils poison the gaiety: Greed, sins of the past, and desperate, clawing hopes of the future spar with one another as the knowledge that Big-Daddy is dying slowly makes the rounds. Maggie, Big Daddy’s daughter-in-law, wants to give him the news that she is finally pregnant by Big Daddy’s favorite son, Brick. Brick won’t cooperate in Maggie’s plans and prefers to stay in an alcoholic haze. Maggie has her own interests at heart, but she wants to make amends to Brick for an error in judgment that nearly cost her her marriage. Swarming around Maggie and Brick are their intrusive, conniving relatives, all eager to see Brick tumbled from his position of most-beloved son, and Maggie put in her place. By evening’s end, Maggie’s ingenuity, fortitude and passion will set things right, and Brick’s love for his father, never before expressed, will retrieve him from his path of destruction and return him, helplessly to Maggie’s loving arms.

Author: Tennessee Williams

Historian’s Corner

“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “South Pacific” sold more single admission tickets than the other two plays of that season. The final number of single admission tickets was 955.