Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2005)

Performances

January 28-30 & February 3-6, 10-12, 2005

Venue

Community Players Theatre

Synopsis

In a plantation house, a family celebrates the sixty-fifth birthday of Big Daddy. The mood is somber, despite the festivities, because a number of evils poison the gaiety: greed, sins of the past, and desperate, clawing hopes for 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’s finally become pregnant by Big Daddy’s favorite son, Brick, but Brick won’t cooperate in Maggie’s plans and prefers to stay in a mild alcoholic haze the entire length of his visit. Maggie has her own interests at heart in wanting to become pregnant, of course, but she also 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 Maggie put in her place and Brick tumbled from his position of most-beloved son. 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

A revival of the Tennessee Williams classic American drama “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” opened the 2005 part of the 82nd season. In an explosive scene between Big Daddy and Brick, the face-to-face arguments became so intense that an audience member let out the exclamation,”For God’s sake, please take a breath!” The actors, but a minute from intermission, kept focus and finished the scene. Someone backstage told them of the audience call out. Neither had heard, as they were so focused. The show received high praise for all aspects of the production.