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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
The members of a well-to-do Southern family gather to await the impending death of their domineering father, "Big Daddy," and are forced to face the truth about themselves as well.
173 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1955
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About the author
Tennessee Williams
650听books3,552听followersThomas Lanier Williams III, better known by the nickname Tennessee Williams, was a major American playwright of the twentieth century who received many of the top theatrical awards for his work. He moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to "Tennessee," the state of his father's birth.
Raised in St. Louis, Missouri, after years of obscurity, at age 33 he became famous with the success of The Glass Menagerie (1944) in New York City. This play closely reflected his own unhappy family background. It was the first of a string of successes, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), and The Night of the Iguana (1961). With his later work, he attempted a new style that did not appeal to audiences. His drama A Streetcar Named Desire is often numbered on short lists of the finest American plays of the 20th century, alongside Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
Much of Williams' most acclaimed work has been adapted for the cinema. He also wrote short stories, poetry, essays and a volume of memoirs. In 1979, four years before his death, Williams was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
From Wikipedia
Raised in St. Louis, Missouri, after years of obscurity, at age 33 he became famous with the success of The Glass Menagerie (1944) in New York City. This play closely reflected his own unhappy family background. It was the first of a string of successes, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), and The Night of the Iguana (1961). With his later work, he attempted a new style that did not appeal to audiences. His drama A Streetcar Named Desire is often numbered on short lists of the finest American plays of the 20th century, alongside Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
Much of Williams' most acclaimed work has been adapted for the cinema. He also wrote short stories, poetry, essays and a volume of memoirs. In 1979, four years before his death, Williams was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
From Wikipedia
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September 24, 2021
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a play by Tennessee Williams. One of Williams's more famous works and his personal favorite, the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is the story of a Southern family in crisis, especially the husband Brick and wife Margaret (usually called Maggie or "Maggie the Cat"), and their interaction with Brick's family over the course of one evening's gathering at the family estate in Mississippi.
The party celebrates the birthday of patriarch Big Daddy Pollitt, "the Delta's biggest cotton-planter", and his return from the Ochsner Clinic with what he has been told is a clean bill of health. All family members (except Big Daddy and his wife Big Mama) are aware of Big Daddy's true diagnosis: He is dying of cancer.
His family has lied to Big Daddy and Big Mama to spare the aging couple from pain on the patriarch's birthday, but throughout the course of the play, it becomes clear that the Pollitt family has long constructed a web of deceit for itself.
鬲丕乇蹖禺 賳禺爻鬲蹖賳 禺賵丕賳卮: 乇賵夭 賴賮鬲賲 賲丕賴 噩賵賱丕蹖 爻丕賱 2002賲蹖賱丕丿蹖
毓賳賵丕賳: 诏乇亘賴 乇賵蹖 卮蹖乇賵丕賳蹖 丿丕睾 - 賲鬲賳 讴丕賲賱 賳賲丕蹖卮賳丕賲赖 丿乇 爻賴 倬乇丿賴貨 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴: 鬲賳爻蹖 賵蹖賱蹖丕賲夭貨 賲鬲乇噩賲: 賲乇噩丕賳 亘禺鬲 賲蹖賳賵貨 讴乇噩貙 賲蹖賳賵貙 1380貙 丿乇 160氐貙 卮丕亘讴 9647487002貨 趩丕倬 丿賵賲 1382貨 趩丕倬 爻賵賲 1383貨 趩丕倬 趩賴丕乇賲 1385貨 趩丕倬 倬賳噩賲 1392貨 卮丕亘讴 9789647487009貨 賲賵囟賵毓 賳賲丕蹖卮賳丕賲赖 賴丕蹖 賳賵蹖爻賳丿诏丕賳 丕蹖丕賱丕鬲 賲鬲丨丿賴 丌賲乇蹖讴丕 爻丿賴 20賲
诏乇亘賴 乇賵蹖 卮蹖乇賵丕賳蹖 丿丕睾貨 丕孬乇 芦鬲賳爻蹖 賵蹖賱蹖丕賲夭禄貙 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 蹖 芦丕蹖丕賱丕鬲 賲鬲丨丿賴 丌賲乇蹖讴丕 (爻丕賱 1914賲蹖賱丕丿蹖 鬲丕 爻丕賱 1983賲蹖賱丕丿蹖)禄 賳賲丕蹖卮鈥屬嗀з呝団€� 丕蹖貙 丿乇亘丕乇賴 噩賵卮 賵 禺乇賵卮 丨丕讴賲 亘乇 禺丕賳賵丕丿賴 丕蹖 孬乇賵鬲賲賳丿 噩賳賵亘蹖 丕爻鬲貙 讴賴 亘丕 丿賵乇賵蹖蹖 賵 乇蹖丕貙 丿乇 讴賳丕乇 賴賲 诏乇丿 丌賲丿賴 鈥屫з嗀� 鬲丕 丿乇 蹖讴 賱丨馗賴貙 賴賲賴 趩蹖夭 乇丕 賮丕卮 賳賲丕蹖賳丿貨 芦亘乇蹖讴禄噩賵丕賳蹖 丕賱讴賱蹖 丕爻鬲貙 讴賴 亘乇丕蹖 丿乇诏匕卮鬲 亘賴鬲乇蹖賳 丿賵爻鬲卮貙 賵 讴賵鬲丕賴蹖卮 丿乇 丿賵爻鬲蹖 亘丕 丕賵貙 毓匕丕亘 賲蹖鈥屭┴簇� 賴賲趩賳蹖賳 芦賲诏蹖禄貙 賴賲爻乇卮貙 亘乇丕蹖 丿賵乇 讴乇丿賳 卮賵賴乇卮 丕夭 丕賵 丿乇 乇賳噩 丕爻鬲貨 丕夭 爻賵蹖 丿蹖诏乇 芦倬丿乇亘夭乇诏禄貙 倬丿乇 芦亘乇蹖讴禄貙 丕夭 丿丕卮鬲賳 亘蹖賲丕乇蹖 爻乇胤丕賳 禺賵蹖卮 亘蹖禺亘乇 丕爻鬲貙 賵 亘乇丕蹖 夭賳丿诏蹖 賴賵爻 亘爻蹖丕乇 丿丕乇丿貨 诏乇丿 丌賲丿賳 丌賳賴丕 亘乇丕蹖 卮氐鬲 賵 倬賳噩賲蹖賳 爻丕賱诏乇丿 噩卮賳 鬲賵賱丿 芦倬丿乇亘夭乇诏禄貙 賳丕诏賴丕賳 亘賴 讴卮賲讴卮 禺丕賳賵丕丿诏蹖 亘丿賱 賲蹖鈥屫促堌�
賲诏蹖 賲蹖鈥屭堐屫�: (賲蹖鈥屫з嗃� 賲賳 趩賴 丕丨爻丕爻蹖 丿丕乇賲責 賴賲蹖卮賴 丨爻 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗁� 賲孬賱 蹖讴 诏乇亘賴 乇賵蹖 蹖讴 卮蹖乇賵丕賳蹖 丿丕睾 賴爻鬲賲貨 芦亘乇蹖讴禄 丿乇 倬丕爻禺 賲蹖鈥屭堐屫�: 倬爻貙 丕夭 乇賵蹖 卮蹖乇賵丕賳蹖 亘倬乇 倬丕蹖蹖賳 芦賲诏蹖禄! 诏乇亘賴鈥� 賴丕 丕夭 乇賵蹖 卮蹖乇賵丕賳蹖 賲蹖鈥屬矩辟嗀� 倬丕蹖蹖賳貙 賵 賴蹖趩 氐丿賲賴鈥� 丕蹖 賳賲蹖鈥屫ㄛ屬嗁嗀� 丕蹖賳 讴丕乇 乇丕 亘讴賳貨 亘倬乇!禄貨 賲诏蹖 賲蹖鈥屭堐屫�: 亘倬乇賲 讴噩丕責 亘賴 趩賴 丕賲蹖丿蹖責 芦亘乇蹖讴禄 倬丕爻禺 賲蹖鈥屫囏�: 蹖讴 毓丕卮賯 诏蹖乇 亘蹖丕乇貨 芦賲诏蹖禄: 賲爻鬲丨賯 丕蹖賳 讴丕乇 賳蹖爻鬲賲貨 噩夭 鬲賵 賴蹖趩 賲乇丿蹖 乇丕 賳賲蹖鈥屫ㄛ屬嗁呚� 丨鬲蹖 亘丕 趩卮賲鈥屬囏й� 亘爻鬲賴 賮賯胤 鬲賵 乇丕 賲蹖鈥屫ㄛ屬嗁�.)貨
鬲丕乇蹖禺 亘賴賳诏丕賲 乇爻丕賳蹖 09/09/1399賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 01/07/1400賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 丕. 卮乇亘蹖丕賳蹖
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a play by Tennessee Williams. One of Williams's more famous works and his personal favorite, the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is the story of a Southern family in crisis, especially the husband Brick and wife Margaret (usually called Maggie or "Maggie the Cat"), and their interaction with Brick's family over the course of one evening's gathering at the family estate in Mississippi.
The party celebrates the birthday of patriarch Big Daddy Pollitt, "the Delta's biggest cotton-planter", and his return from the Ochsner Clinic with what he has been told is a clean bill of health. All family members (except Big Daddy and his wife Big Mama) are aware of Big Daddy's true diagnosis: He is dying of cancer.
His family has lied to Big Daddy and Big Mama to spare the aging couple from pain on the patriarch's birthday, but throughout the course of the play, it becomes clear that the Pollitt family has long constructed a web of deceit for itself.
鬲丕乇蹖禺 賳禺爻鬲蹖賳 禺賵丕賳卮: 乇賵夭 賴賮鬲賲 賲丕賴 噩賵賱丕蹖 爻丕賱 2002賲蹖賱丕丿蹖
毓賳賵丕賳: 诏乇亘賴 乇賵蹖 卮蹖乇賵丕賳蹖 丿丕睾 - 賲鬲賳 讴丕賲賱 賳賲丕蹖卮賳丕賲赖 丿乇 爻賴 倬乇丿賴貨 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴: 鬲賳爻蹖 賵蹖賱蹖丕賲夭貨 賲鬲乇噩賲: 賲乇噩丕賳 亘禺鬲 賲蹖賳賵貨 讴乇噩貙 賲蹖賳賵貙 1380貙 丿乇 160氐貙 卮丕亘讴 9647487002貨 趩丕倬 丿賵賲 1382貨 趩丕倬 爻賵賲 1383貨 趩丕倬 趩賴丕乇賲 1385貨 趩丕倬 倬賳噩賲 1392貨 卮丕亘讴 9789647487009貨 賲賵囟賵毓 賳賲丕蹖卮賳丕賲赖 賴丕蹖 賳賵蹖爻賳丿诏丕賳 丕蹖丕賱丕鬲 賲鬲丨丿賴 丌賲乇蹖讴丕 爻丿賴 20賲
诏乇亘賴 乇賵蹖 卮蹖乇賵丕賳蹖 丿丕睾貨 丕孬乇 芦鬲賳爻蹖 賵蹖賱蹖丕賲夭禄貙 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 蹖 芦丕蹖丕賱丕鬲 賲鬲丨丿賴 丌賲乇蹖讴丕 (爻丕賱 1914賲蹖賱丕丿蹖 鬲丕 爻丕賱 1983賲蹖賱丕丿蹖)禄 賳賲丕蹖卮鈥屬嗀з呝団€� 丕蹖貙 丿乇亘丕乇賴 噩賵卮 賵 禺乇賵卮 丨丕讴賲 亘乇 禺丕賳賵丕丿賴 丕蹖 孬乇賵鬲賲賳丿 噩賳賵亘蹖 丕爻鬲貙 讴賴 亘丕 丿賵乇賵蹖蹖 賵 乇蹖丕貙 丿乇 讴賳丕乇 賴賲 诏乇丿 丌賲丿賴 鈥屫з嗀� 鬲丕 丿乇 蹖讴 賱丨馗賴貙 賴賲賴 趩蹖夭 乇丕 賮丕卮 賳賲丕蹖賳丿貨 芦亘乇蹖讴禄噩賵丕賳蹖 丕賱讴賱蹖 丕爻鬲貙 讴賴 亘乇丕蹖 丿乇诏匕卮鬲 亘賴鬲乇蹖賳 丿賵爻鬲卮貙 賵 讴賵鬲丕賴蹖卮 丿乇 丿賵爻鬲蹖 亘丕 丕賵貙 毓匕丕亘 賲蹖鈥屭┴簇� 賴賲趩賳蹖賳 芦賲诏蹖禄貙 賴賲爻乇卮貙 亘乇丕蹖 丿賵乇 讴乇丿賳 卮賵賴乇卮 丕夭 丕賵 丿乇 乇賳噩 丕爻鬲貨 丕夭 爻賵蹖 丿蹖诏乇 芦倬丿乇亘夭乇诏禄貙 倬丿乇 芦亘乇蹖讴禄貙 丕夭 丿丕卮鬲賳 亘蹖賲丕乇蹖 爻乇胤丕賳 禺賵蹖卮 亘蹖禺亘乇 丕爻鬲貙 賵 亘乇丕蹖 夭賳丿诏蹖 賴賵爻 亘爻蹖丕乇 丿丕乇丿貨 诏乇丿 丌賲丿賳 丌賳賴丕 亘乇丕蹖 卮氐鬲 賵 倬賳噩賲蹖賳 爻丕賱诏乇丿 噩卮賳 鬲賵賱丿 芦倬丿乇亘夭乇诏禄貙 賳丕诏賴丕賳 亘賴 讴卮賲讴卮 禺丕賳賵丕丿诏蹖 亘丿賱 賲蹖鈥屫促堌�
賲诏蹖 賲蹖鈥屭堐屫�: (賲蹖鈥屫з嗃� 賲賳 趩賴 丕丨爻丕爻蹖 丿丕乇賲責 賴賲蹖卮賴 丨爻 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗁� 賲孬賱 蹖讴 诏乇亘賴 乇賵蹖 蹖讴 卮蹖乇賵丕賳蹖 丿丕睾 賴爻鬲賲貨 芦亘乇蹖讴禄 丿乇 倬丕爻禺 賲蹖鈥屭堐屫�: 倬爻貙 丕夭 乇賵蹖 卮蹖乇賵丕賳蹖 亘倬乇 倬丕蹖蹖賳 芦賲诏蹖禄! 诏乇亘賴鈥� 賴丕 丕夭 乇賵蹖 卮蹖乇賵丕賳蹖 賲蹖鈥屬矩辟嗀� 倬丕蹖蹖賳貙 賵 賴蹖趩 氐丿賲賴鈥� 丕蹖 賳賲蹖鈥屫ㄛ屬嗁嗀� 丕蹖賳 讴丕乇 乇丕 亘讴賳貨 亘倬乇!禄貨 賲诏蹖 賲蹖鈥屭堐屫�: 亘倬乇賲 讴噩丕責 亘賴 趩賴 丕賲蹖丿蹖責 芦亘乇蹖讴禄 倬丕爻禺 賲蹖鈥屫囏�: 蹖讴 毓丕卮賯 诏蹖乇 亘蹖丕乇貨 芦賲诏蹖禄: 賲爻鬲丨賯 丕蹖賳 讴丕乇 賳蹖爻鬲賲貨 噩夭 鬲賵 賴蹖趩 賲乇丿蹖 乇丕 賳賲蹖鈥屫ㄛ屬嗁呚� 丨鬲蹖 亘丕 趩卮賲鈥屬囏й� 亘爻鬲賴 賮賯胤 鬲賵 乇丕 賲蹖鈥屫ㄛ屬嗁�.)貨
鬲丕乇蹖禺 亘賴賳诏丕賲 乇爻丕賳蹖 09/09/1399賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 01/07/1400賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 丕. 卮乇亘蹖丕賳蹖
December 6, 2016
This year I embarked to read more plays written by the giants of American playwrights and I currently find myself reading through Tennessee Williams' trilogy of classic plays. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was first written in 1955 and revised many times both for the stage and film. Featuring well known characters, the play is known for its character studies and should be viewed live rather than read. It is in this light that I read the Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and enjoyed its characters, for which I rate four bright stars.
Tennessee Williams takes us to a plantation in the south where two brothers, Gooper and Brick, are jockeying for position to get the upper hand in their father Big Daddy's will. Brick is a former football star who has become an alcoholic because he can face that he is no longer able to star on the football field. He is married to Maggie and as alcohol has pervaded their marriage the couple remains childless. Gooper is married to Mae and the couple has five children and expecting a sixth. Although eight years Brick's senior and a successful attorney, Gooper is not the light of Big Daddy's eyes. Big Daddy would like nothing more than to leave his land to Brick, if only the latter would right himself and turn his life around.
Meanwhile the wives Maggie and Mae can not stand each other and offer malicious lines to each other. Maggie's arias are memorable, as I always enjoy a strong female lead. Both women are as the title notes likes cats on a hot tin roof, dancing around each other on edge because neither will be satisfied until they have successfully one-upped the other. From my perspective, Maggie is the more likeable of the two, even though it is Mae who has given Big Daddy the grandchildren he desires.
The climax of the play is the exchange between Big Daddy and Brick in which Big Daddy urges his son to become a better person. This occurs in the second act, making the third act almost anti-climatic. Perhaps if I had viewed this play live I might have thought differently, but I enjoyed the second act more than the third, primarily for the exchange between Big Daddy and Brick.
Tennessee Williams is a master playwright of the 20th century. He touches on social issues as homosexual relationships and a woman's place in a marriage before it was socially acceptable to do so. Being ahead of his time, Williams brings these issues into light in the forms of deep characters. I enjoyed the personas of Brick, Maggie, and Big Daddy, and sneered at Mae who embodies the old south. A solid four stars in print form, I look forward to viewing Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on film.
Tennessee Williams takes us to a plantation in the south where two brothers, Gooper and Brick, are jockeying for position to get the upper hand in their father Big Daddy's will. Brick is a former football star who has become an alcoholic because he can face that he is no longer able to star on the football field. He is married to Maggie and as alcohol has pervaded their marriage the couple remains childless. Gooper is married to Mae and the couple has five children and expecting a sixth. Although eight years Brick's senior and a successful attorney, Gooper is not the light of Big Daddy's eyes. Big Daddy would like nothing more than to leave his land to Brick, if only the latter would right himself and turn his life around.
Meanwhile the wives Maggie and Mae can not stand each other and offer malicious lines to each other. Maggie's arias are memorable, as I always enjoy a strong female lead. Both women are as the title notes likes cats on a hot tin roof, dancing around each other on edge because neither will be satisfied until they have successfully one-upped the other. From my perspective, Maggie is the more likeable of the two, even though it is Mae who has given Big Daddy the grandchildren he desires.
The climax of the play is the exchange between Big Daddy and Brick in which Big Daddy urges his son to become a better person. This occurs in the second act, making the third act almost anti-climatic. Perhaps if I had viewed this play live I might have thought differently, but I enjoyed the second act more than the third, primarily for the exchange between Big Daddy and Brick.
Tennessee Williams is a master playwright of the 20th century. He touches on social issues as homosexual relationships and a woman's place in a marriage before it was socially acceptable to do so. Being ahead of his time, Williams brings these issues into light in the forms of deep characters. I enjoyed the personas of Brick, Maggie, and Big Daddy, and sneered at Mae who embodies the old south. A solid four stars in print form, I look forward to viewing Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on film.
February 2, 2025
Why can鈥檛 exceptional friendship ... between two men be respected as ... clean and decent.
~~
The summer of my 13th year, I was a voracious reader. I read everything I could get my hands on. The author I read most that summer was . If I remember correctly, I read 74 of his plays ~~ full length, one acts and several versions of . I was obsessed with Williams. For years, I considered him America's greatest dramatist. I've since bestowed that title on , but still hold that Williams is one of the four greatest playwrights America has produced ~~ the others being O'Neill, and . For years, my favorite of all of Williams work was Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Put simply, 鈥� Pulitzer Prize-winning is an extraordinary. play. Williams expertly examines and dissects the brutal poetry of a Mississippi Delta plantation family as they grapple with the anxiety of life and love on Big Daddy鈥檚 sixty-fifth birthday. The party sizzles then bursts into flames as betrayals and lies are exposed. Concealing the terminal cancer diagnosis of Big Daddy Pollitt is just the tip of the iceberg here. Sexual tension leaps off the page as the Pollitt family鈥檚 reckoning rockets to an ending that leaves both the reader and theatre goer spent.
From the opening line, Maggie the Cat a super-charged, deeply frustrated, very funny, sexy, frenetic and the cunning wife of Brick, a broken alcoholic with a broken ankle鈥搇aunches into a tour de force monologue, delivered in varying states of undress. By turns seductive and panicked, Maggie, delivers a crackling exposition that sets the stage for a birthday night to remember.
Conversely, the quiet, agony-laced show put on by Brick, as he largely ignores and avoids Maggie鈥檚 effort at psychoanalytic seduction, provides key insight into the depths of his despondency, not to mention his daily self-destructive march to mind-numbing drunkenness in an effort to achieve what he describes as the magic click that signals he鈥檚 found his peace. Repressed, to say the least, Brick鈥檚 avoidance in the face of Maggie鈥檚 persistent, rising tension appears, at first, to be the source of the heat that makes Maggie a cat on a hot tin roof. But as the evening proceeds on and the plot thickens, it becomes clear there鈥檚 much more than seduction at stake.
Enter Big Daddy Pollitt and the cast of characters who consistently vie to secure a prime place in his orbit and a slice of his legacy.
With Maggie and Brick in the same room at the same time, but miles apart, the brilliance of ~~ his ability to tear open the souls of his characters and lay them bare before us ~~ yet still have them surprise us鈥揵egins to unfold.
As the play unfolds, we watch as the dysfunctional Pollitt family fights to conceal Big Daddy鈥檚 terminal diagnosis and ensure their inheritance. In the meantime, the lie that he has been given a clean bill of health energizes Big Daddy to obliterate the remnants of his marriage to Big Momma, expose the dishonesty of his despised son Gooper and his wife Sister Woman ~~ that odious temple of fertility ~~ and repair his relationship with his chosen heir Brick. As the lead mantle passes from Maggie to Big Daddy, Williams writes an unforgettable portrait of a dying man ~~ at once fragile and utterly impenetrable, vicious bully and tender father, both cruel and loving. When Big Daddy unearths what he believes to be the source of Brick鈥檚 depression and alcoholism ~~ his son鈥檚 repressed homosexual relationship with his best friend Skipper ~~ Brick fights back by exposing the reality of Big Daddy鈥檚 condition. As Big Daddy Pollitt exits, he launches into a tirade about the mendacity of his family and the cruelty of his terminal diagnosis ~~ it is a powerful moment.
With the truth on the table, the illusion of normal family life explodes into a brutal fight for control of the 28,000-acre plantation and Big Daddy鈥檚 millions. As their true motivations are revealed鈥揳ny hope for honesty dies in the blast. With Big Daddy absent, Maggie takes back the lead in her own unforgettable, spellbinding final ploy for control.
In the Spring of 1955, opened in New York. Directed by , the play was an immediate sensation. In the sixty-six years since the curtain rose on 鈥� masterpiece, remains a spellbinding, brilliant theatrical experience, written by a master craftsman at the height of his powers.
~~
The summer of my 13th year, I was a voracious reader. I read everything I could get my hands on. The author I read most that summer was . If I remember correctly, I read 74 of his plays ~~ full length, one acts and several versions of . I was obsessed with Williams. For years, I considered him America's greatest dramatist. I've since bestowed that title on , but still hold that Williams is one of the four greatest playwrights America has produced ~~ the others being O'Neill, and . For years, my favorite of all of Williams work was Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Put simply, 鈥� Pulitzer Prize-winning is an extraordinary. play. Williams expertly examines and dissects the brutal poetry of a Mississippi Delta plantation family as they grapple with the anxiety of life and love on Big Daddy鈥檚 sixty-fifth birthday. The party sizzles then bursts into flames as betrayals and lies are exposed. Concealing the terminal cancer diagnosis of Big Daddy Pollitt is just the tip of the iceberg here. Sexual tension leaps off the page as the Pollitt family鈥檚 reckoning rockets to an ending that leaves both the reader and theatre goer spent.
From the opening line, Maggie the Cat a super-charged, deeply frustrated, very funny, sexy, frenetic and the cunning wife of Brick, a broken alcoholic with a broken ankle鈥搇aunches into a tour de force monologue, delivered in varying states of undress. By turns seductive and panicked, Maggie, delivers a crackling exposition that sets the stage for a birthday night to remember.
Conversely, the quiet, agony-laced show put on by Brick, as he largely ignores and avoids Maggie鈥檚 effort at psychoanalytic seduction, provides key insight into the depths of his despondency, not to mention his daily self-destructive march to mind-numbing drunkenness in an effort to achieve what he describes as the magic click that signals he鈥檚 found his peace. Repressed, to say the least, Brick鈥檚 avoidance in the face of Maggie鈥檚 persistent, rising tension appears, at first, to be the source of the heat that makes Maggie a cat on a hot tin roof. But as the evening proceeds on and the plot thickens, it becomes clear there鈥檚 much more than seduction at stake.
Enter Big Daddy Pollitt and the cast of characters who consistently vie to secure a prime place in his orbit and a slice of his legacy.
With Maggie and Brick in the same room at the same time, but miles apart, the brilliance of ~~ his ability to tear open the souls of his characters and lay them bare before us ~~ yet still have them surprise us鈥揵egins to unfold.
As the play unfolds, we watch as the dysfunctional Pollitt family fights to conceal Big Daddy鈥檚 terminal diagnosis and ensure their inheritance. In the meantime, the lie that he has been given a clean bill of health energizes Big Daddy to obliterate the remnants of his marriage to Big Momma, expose the dishonesty of his despised son Gooper and his wife Sister Woman ~~ that odious temple of fertility ~~ and repair his relationship with his chosen heir Brick. As the lead mantle passes from Maggie to Big Daddy, Williams writes an unforgettable portrait of a dying man ~~ at once fragile and utterly impenetrable, vicious bully and tender father, both cruel and loving. When Big Daddy unearths what he believes to be the source of Brick鈥檚 depression and alcoholism ~~ his son鈥檚 repressed homosexual relationship with his best friend Skipper ~~ Brick fights back by exposing the reality of Big Daddy鈥檚 condition. As Big Daddy Pollitt exits, he launches into a tirade about the mendacity of his family and the cruelty of his terminal diagnosis ~~ it is a powerful moment.
With the truth on the table, the illusion of normal family life explodes into a brutal fight for control of the 28,000-acre plantation and Big Daddy鈥檚 millions. As their true motivations are revealed鈥揳ny hope for honesty dies in the blast. With Big Daddy absent, Maggie takes back the lead in her own unforgettable, spellbinding final ploy for control.
In the Spring of 1955, opened in New York. Directed by , the play was an immediate sensation. In the sixty-six years since the curtain rose on 鈥� masterpiece, remains a spellbinding, brilliant theatrical experience, written by a master craftsman at the height of his powers.
March 15, 2021
It turns out that not only was Tennessee not Mr Williams鈥� real name, he wasn鈥檛 even born in Tennessee either and as far as I can see he never even lived there. I wonder what the 6,886,834 actual Tennesseans of 2021 think about that. But it is a beautiful name (whose etymology and original meaning are now lost in the mist of time).
But this is all beside the point.
This play is one of the kazillion modern dramatic productions of stage and screen that demonstrate how oppressive families can be, how injurious to mental health, and how venal, mendacious and duplicitous, and how suborned each family member can be, especially if they can see their way to a fat imminent inheritance of 28,000 acres of the best soil west of the River Nile.
The two main characters are Big Daddy and his favourite son Brick. Both of these are married to women they have contempt for, and they demonstrate this very freely throughout the proceedings. The occasion is BD鈥檚 65th birthday and unpleasant revelations are in the air. The thing is that BD has been rather unwell for three years and finally they have got tests done and he & his wife (who is called, yes, Big Momma) has been told it鈥檚 nothing, jest an ole spastic colon, but meanwhile the doctors, apparently, have said to the number one son Gooper (I am not making up these names) it鈥檚 not any ole spastic colon, it鈥檚 terminal cancer, he hasn鈥檛 got long, leading Goop to figure that he better get BD to MAKE A WILL (he hasn鈥檛 so far cause he wants to live forever) and make Goop the sole beneficiary because that no good Brick is just a handsome falling down drunk which can be demonstrated by the fact of him hopping around for th whole play with his leg in a cast because he broke his ankle trying to jump over a hurdle at three in the morning yesterday.
Brick doesn鈥檛 love his lovely wife but he did love his friend Skipper (鈥渇riendship with Skipper was that one true great thing鈥�) who died of drink. Both his wife Margaret and BD himself attempt to drag out of him an acknowledgement that this one true great friendship was in truth homosexual and both of them are pretty cool about it too, but poor old Brick can鈥檛 take all the pressure and so he has become a full-on alcoholic -
[Brick crosses to the bar, takes a quick drink]
[He hobbles directly to liquor cabinet to get a new drink]
[Brick has replaced his spilt drink]
[smiling vaguely over his drink]
[He smiles vaguely and amiably at his father across his replenished drink.]
[This last statement is made with energy as he freshens his drink.]
So there鈥檚 the gay revelation and the cancer revelation and lots of self-delusion and all-round irritation and steaminess. I liked it. There are a few zingers 鈥� Brick鈥檚 wife Margaret is complaining he never shags her and he says :
I鈥檓 not living with you. We occupy the same cage.
One thing I was not expecting was the bizarre nature of the stage directions. At one point it directs Margaret like this :
she has to capture the audience in a grip so tight that she can hold it till the first intermission without any lapse of attention.
Eeek! I bet that has made a few actresses turn pale. And I especially liked this stage direction where Tennessee kind of confesses directly to the audience :
Brick's detachment is at last broken through. His heart is accelerated; his forehead sweat-beaded; his breath becomes more rapid and his voice hoarse鈥�.The bird that I hope to catch in the net of this play is not the solution of one man's psychological problem. I'm trying to catch the true quality of experience in a group of people, that cloudy, flickering, evanescent--fiercely charged!--interplay of live human beings in the thundercloud of a common crisis.
Finally, this was very interesting because TW was explicit about the relationship between the playwright and the director. He tells us that Elia Kazan, the first director, wanted the third act rewritten 鈥� he had his own good reasons. And TW wasn鈥檛 in a position then to say no, so there are two very different third acts in existence (both printed in this Penguin edition).
But this is all beside the point.
This play is one of the kazillion modern dramatic productions of stage and screen that demonstrate how oppressive families can be, how injurious to mental health, and how venal, mendacious and duplicitous, and how suborned each family member can be, especially if they can see their way to a fat imminent inheritance of 28,000 acres of the best soil west of the River Nile.
The two main characters are Big Daddy and his favourite son Brick. Both of these are married to women they have contempt for, and they demonstrate this very freely throughout the proceedings. The occasion is BD鈥檚 65th birthday and unpleasant revelations are in the air. The thing is that BD has been rather unwell for three years and finally they have got tests done and he & his wife (who is called, yes, Big Momma) has been told it鈥檚 nothing, jest an ole spastic colon, but meanwhile the doctors, apparently, have said to the number one son Gooper (I am not making up these names) it鈥檚 not any ole spastic colon, it鈥檚 terminal cancer, he hasn鈥檛 got long, leading Goop to figure that he better get BD to MAKE A WILL (he hasn鈥檛 so far cause he wants to live forever) and make Goop the sole beneficiary because that no good Brick is just a handsome falling down drunk which can be demonstrated by the fact of him hopping around for th whole play with his leg in a cast because he broke his ankle trying to jump over a hurdle at three in the morning yesterday.
Brick doesn鈥檛 love his lovely wife but he did love his friend Skipper (鈥渇riendship with Skipper was that one true great thing鈥�) who died of drink. Both his wife Margaret and BD himself attempt to drag out of him an acknowledgement that this one true great friendship was in truth homosexual and both of them are pretty cool about it too, but poor old Brick can鈥檛 take all the pressure and so he has become a full-on alcoholic -
[Brick crosses to the bar, takes a quick drink]
[He hobbles directly to liquor cabinet to get a new drink]
[Brick has replaced his spilt drink]
[smiling vaguely over his drink]
[He smiles vaguely and amiably at his father across his replenished drink.]
[This last statement is made with energy as he freshens his drink.]
So there鈥檚 the gay revelation and the cancer revelation and lots of self-delusion and all-round irritation and steaminess. I liked it. There are a few zingers 鈥� Brick鈥檚 wife Margaret is complaining he never shags her and he says :
I鈥檓 not living with you. We occupy the same cage.
One thing I was not expecting was the bizarre nature of the stage directions. At one point it directs Margaret like this :
she has to capture the audience in a grip so tight that she can hold it till the first intermission without any lapse of attention.
Eeek! I bet that has made a few actresses turn pale. And I especially liked this stage direction where Tennessee kind of confesses directly to the audience :
Brick's detachment is at last broken through. His heart is accelerated; his forehead sweat-beaded; his breath becomes more rapid and his voice hoarse鈥�.The bird that I hope to catch in the net of this play is not the solution of one man's psychological problem. I'm trying to catch the true quality of experience in a group of people, that cloudy, flickering, evanescent--fiercely charged!--interplay of live human beings in the thundercloud of a common crisis.
Finally, this was very interesting because TW was explicit about the relationship between the playwright and the director. He tells us that Elia Kazan, the first director, wanted the third act rewritten 鈥� he had his own good reasons. And TW wasn鈥檛 in a position then to say no, so there are two very different third acts in existence (both printed in this Penguin edition).
May 4, 2020
4+ stars - This three-act play by Tennessee Williams won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1955. Williams explores gender roles, homosexuality, homophobia, societal expectations, avarice, and the psychology of dysfunction relationships, which abound in these flawed, but incredibly human characters. Big Daddy is the larger than life patriarch of the Mississippi plantation where they live. He is crass and opinionated, but at an opportune moment in dialog with his son, Brick, Big Daddy reveals that he would be tolerant if his son is homosexual. Brick who has absorbed societal norms rails against his father鈥檚 attempts at conversation and against his father鈥檚 tolerance. When Big Daddy determinedly pries from Brick the reason for his alcoholism and morose disposition, Brick utters the word, 鈥渄isgust.鈥� At that moment, the reader or theatergoer, as the case may be, knows that of all the things that may disgust Brick, he is most of all, disgusted with himself. It鈥檚 apropos that Brick is leaning on a crutch from an injury he obtained while trying to rekindle his high school athleticism by jumping over a hurdle. The alcohol is another crutch. Even his suffering keeps him passive.
The women in the play are as colorful as peacock feathers. Maggie depicts the marginalized female of the 1950s, but she breaks stereotypes. She wields words in a powerful way and exudes vitality. She is sultry, proud of her sexuality, but determined to find a place for Brick and herself in the kingdom of Big Daddy. Maggie is the 鈥榗at on a hot tin roof.鈥� Big Mama is an obnoxious character. While I felt sympathy for her being the brunt of Big Daddy鈥檚 jokes, I was annoyed at her behavior catering to Big Daddy, making him the sun in her world. The fact that she coddles her grown son, Brick, calling him 鈥渕y baby鈥� seems debilitating for both parties. Big Mama鈥檚 expectation that a child from Maggie and Brick will solve everything and make Big Daddy happy is an added pressure for Maggie, especially considering that her sister-in-law Mae is a 鈥渇ertility machine.鈥� Mae is happily greedy and everything she does is to secure more for herself and her brood.
Lies, manipulation, and as Williams puts it (through Big Daddy), 鈥渕endacity鈥� is another major theme in 鈥楥at on a Hot Tin Roof. Maggie, Mae, and Gooper, Brick鈥檚 older brother, all want a part of Big Daddy鈥檚 wealth, and they will lie or manipulate in order to gain whatever is possible. Mae and Gooper seem to have no real love for Big Daddy, only for what he can give them. The only one that doesn鈥檛 want a part of it is Brick. This comes across as a truth. Williams winnows through the chaff to expose a truth that most of us know, 鈥榯rue love cannot be bought nor revealed through expensive gifts or possessions,鈥� but he does it in a way that we are not likely to forget. An unhappy young man who is offered the kingdom, but looks away in search of something else. We also know he鈥檚 not likely to find it at the bottom of a bottle. Brick believes the best thing he ever had in his life is lost forever; his friendship and love of Skipper, his best friend. Maggie reaches out to Brick with something else. She says 鈥淟ife has got to be allowed to continue even after the dream of life is--all--over.鈥� My interpretation of her words are, you can continue to live in the fantasy of your high school football hero days and with the grief of your lost perfect love, or you can live in an imperfect present, where love and life are messy but real. This is a May group read with 鈥極n the Southern Literary Trail,鈥� and one I highly recommend.
The women in the play are as colorful as peacock feathers. Maggie depicts the marginalized female of the 1950s, but she breaks stereotypes. She wields words in a powerful way and exudes vitality. She is sultry, proud of her sexuality, but determined to find a place for Brick and herself in the kingdom of Big Daddy. Maggie is the 鈥榗at on a hot tin roof.鈥� Big Mama is an obnoxious character. While I felt sympathy for her being the brunt of Big Daddy鈥檚 jokes, I was annoyed at her behavior catering to Big Daddy, making him the sun in her world. The fact that she coddles her grown son, Brick, calling him 鈥渕y baby鈥� seems debilitating for both parties. Big Mama鈥檚 expectation that a child from Maggie and Brick will solve everything and make Big Daddy happy is an added pressure for Maggie, especially considering that her sister-in-law Mae is a 鈥渇ertility machine.鈥� Mae is happily greedy and everything she does is to secure more for herself and her brood.
Lies, manipulation, and as Williams puts it (through Big Daddy), 鈥渕endacity鈥� is another major theme in 鈥楥at on a Hot Tin Roof. Maggie, Mae, and Gooper, Brick鈥檚 older brother, all want a part of Big Daddy鈥檚 wealth, and they will lie or manipulate in order to gain whatever is possible. Mae and Gooper seem to have no real love for Big Daddy, only for what he can give them. The only one that doesn鈥檛 want a part of it is Brick. This comes across as a truth. Williams winnows through the chaff to expose a truth that most of us know, 鈥榯rue love cannot be bought nor revealed through expensive gifts or possessions,鈥� but he does it in a way that we are not likely to forget. An unhappy young man who is offered the kingdom, but looks away in search of something else. We also know he鈥檚 not likely to find it at the bottom of a bottle. Brick believes the best thing he ever had in his life is lost forever; his friendship and love of Skipper, his best friend. Maggie reaches out to Brick with something else. She says 鈥淟ife has got to be allowed to continue even after the dream of life is--all--over.鈥� My interpretation of her words are, you can continue to live in the fantasy of your high school football hero days and with the grief of your lost perfect love, or you can live in an imperfect present, where love and life are messy but real. This is a May group read with 鈥極n the Southern Literary Trail,鈥� and one I highly recommend.
April 7, 2024
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, written by one of the greatest American playwrights, Tennessee Williams, debuted in 1955 with its portrait of rich southerner Big Daddy, Big Mama, and two brothers facing the possibility of their dying father's inheritance. Brick, a former successful football player, is now an alcoholic, and not sleeping with his lovely wife, Maggie the Cat. I saw the film version with Paul Newman and Liz Taylor many years ago and it always stayed with me, but saw it recently late March, 2024) again and pulled up the text on my computer. I had also listened to a version of this play read by another great American playwright, Edward Albee, who reads two different last acts of the play (one highlighting Maggie, the title "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" character, a bit more), including some thoughts about theater by Williams, and a reflection on a production of the play Albee had seen on Broadway, directed by Elia Kazan.
Brick, suggestive for me of Rabbit Angstrom in Rabbit, Run, is a former athlete, lost in the past, lost in the bottle:
Big Daddy: What makes you so restless, have you got ants in your britches?
Brick: Yes, sir. . .
Big Daddy: Why?
Brick: - Something - Hasn't - Happened. . .
Big Daddy: Yeah? What is that?
Brick [sadly]: - the click. . .
Big Daddy: Did you say the click?
Brick: Yes, click.
Big Daddy: What click?
Brick: A click that I get in my head that makes me peaceful.
Big Daddy: I sure in hell don't know what you're talking about, but it disturbs me.
Brick: It's just a mechanical thing.
Big Daddy: What is a mechanical thing?
Brick: This click that I get in my head that makes me peaceful. I got to drink till I get it.
Big Daddy鈥檚 facing death, so he confronts his lost son Brick, and as Williams says about the confrontation:
鈥淲hen something is festering in your memory or your imagination, laws of silence don't work, it's just like shutting a door and locking it on a house on fire in hope of forgetting that the house is burning. But not facing a fire doesn't put it out. Silence about a thing just magnifies it. It grows and festers in silence, becomes malignant. . . 鈥�
The big dramatic, truth-telling showdown is powerful, with terrific dialogue, stripping off the illusions they have all lived by all their lives. I listened to this play when I was in my car, and finished it there, and when I came home I read the physical copy of Death of a Salesman. In Cat Big Daddy shows he knows who he is and he tries to save Brick; in Death Biff shows he knows who he is and he tries to save Willie. To read these two plays within the same 24 hours was just like going from one explosion to another, two great cherry bombs of American theater. Death is better, Miller's best, and Cat isn't the very best Williams, but it's still great theater.
Brick, suggestive for me of Rabbit Angstrom in Rabbit, Run, is a former athlete, lost in the past, lost in the bottle:
Big Daddy: What makes you so restless, have you got ants in your britches?
Brick: Yes, sir. . .
Big Daddy: Why?
Brick: - Something - Hasn't - Happened. . .
Big Daddy: Yeah? What is that?
Brick [sadly]: - the click. . .
Big Daddy: Did you say the click?
Brick: Yes, click.
Big Daddy: What click?
Brick: A click that I get in my head that makes me peaceful.
Big Daddy: I sure in hell don't know what you're talking about, but it disturbs me.
Brick: It's just a mechanical thing.
Big Daddy: What is a mechanical thing?
Brick: This click that I get in my head that makes me peaceful. I got to drink till I get it.
Big Daddy鈥檚 facing death, so he confronts his lost son Brick, and as Williams says about the confrontation:
鈥淲hen something is festering in your memory or your imagination, laws of silence don't work, it's just like shutting a door and locking it on a house on fire in hope of forgetting that the house is burning. But not facing a fire doesn't put it out. Silence about a thing just magnifies it. It grows and festers in silence, becomes malignant. . . 鈥�
The big dramatic, truth-telling showdown is powerful, with terrific dialogue, stripping off the illusions they have all lived by all their lives. I listened to this play when I was in my car, and finished it there, and when I came home I read the physical copy of Death of a Salesman. In Cat Big Daddy shows he knows who he is and he tries to save Brick; in Death Biff shows he knows who he is and he tries to save Willie. To read these two plays within the same 24 hours was just like going from one explosion to another, two great cherry bombs of American theater. Death is better, Miller's best, and Cat isn't the very best Williams, but it's still great theater.
November 10, 2024
賲賳 賯亘賱丕 賮蹖賱賲 丕蹖賳 賳賲丕蹖卮賳丕賲赖 乇賵 丿蹖丿賲 讴賴 禺蹖賱蹖 丿賵爻鬲卮 丿丕卮鬲賲
賵 禺賵賳丿賳 賳賲丕蹖卮賳丕賲赖 鬲噩乇亘賴鈥屰� 亘爻蹖丕乇 賱匕鬲 亘禺卮蹖 亘賵丿.
賵 禺賵賳丿賳 賳賲丕蹖卮賳丕賲赖 鬲噩乇亘賴鈥屰� 亘爻蹖丕乇 賱匕鬲 亘禺卮蹖 亘賵丿.
October 16, 2022
丕賱鬲賴乇亘 賲賳 丕賱賳丕乇 賱丕 賷禺賲丿賴丕 賱賱丕爻賮.. 賵丕賱丨賷丕丞 賲毓 卮禺氐 鬲丨亘賴 亘賷賳賲丕 賴賵 賱丕 賷亘丕丿賱賰 賴匕丕 丕賱丨亘 賯丿 鬲噩毓賱賰 鬲卮毓乇 亘丕賱賵丨丿丞 兀賯賵賷 亘賰孬賷乇 賲賲丕 賱賵 毓卮鬲 賵丨賷丿丕 賲賳賮乇丿丕
鬲乇丕噩賷丿賷丞 毓丕卅賱賷丞 噩賳賵亘賷丞 鬲鬲氐丕毓丿 毓亘乇 丕賲爻賷丞 丕爻乇賷丞貨 賷丨鬲賮賱賵賳 賮賷賴丕 亘毓賷丿 丕賱賲賷賱丕丿 丕賱丕禺賷乇 賱賱賵丕賱丿 賲賱賰 丕賱賯胤賳貨 丕賱賲丨鬲囟乇.. 賵 賮賷 丕賱兀賲爻賷丞 賷囟胤乇听 丕賮乇丕丿 丕賱丕爻乇丞 賱賲賵丕噩賴丕鬲 賱賮馗賷丞 氐丕丿賯丞 氐丕丿賲丞貨 鬲鬲噩賳亘賴丕 丕賱丕爻乇 賱毓賯賵丿 賮賷 丕賱毓丕丿丞.. 賱鬲賳賰卮賮 賱賱賯丕乇卅 鬲丿乇賷噩賷丕 丕爻亘丕亘 毓噩夭 亘乇賷賰 丕賱丕亘賳 賵 丕賱夭賵噩 丕賱賰卅賷亘 丕賱爻賰賷乇: 匕賵 丕賱賲賷賵賱 丕賱睾賷乇 爻賵賷丞賵 丕賱睾賷乇 賲丨賯賯丞
賵 爻賷馗賱 亘乇賷賰 賷購毓丿 丕丨丿賷 丕氐毓亘 卮禺氐賷丕鬲 丕賱丕丿亘 丕賱丕賲乇賷賰賷
賳丨賳 賱丕 賳毓賷卮 賲毓丕賸貨 丕賳賳丕 賮賯胤 賳丨鬲賱 賳賮爻 丕賱賯賮氐 爻賵賷丕賸貨听
賲丕 賴賵 丕賯氐賷 丕賳鬲氐丕乇 賲賲賰賳 丕賳 鬲丨賯賯賴 賯胤丞 毓賱賷 爻胤丨 氐賮賷丨 爻丕禺賳責 丕毓鬲賯丿 丕賳 賲噩乇丿 鬲丨賲賱賴丕 賱賱亘賯丕亍 毓賱賷 丕賱爻胤丨 丕賱賲賱鬲賴亘 賷毓丿 丕賳鬲氐丕乇丕賻
賵 賱賰賳 丕賱賷 賲鬲賷 爻賷丿賵賲 丕賱乇賯氐 毓賱賷 丕賱賳丕乇責 兀賱賲 鬲賳鬲賴賷 賲丿丞 毓賯賵亘鬲賷責 丕賱丕 丕爻鬲丨賯 丕賱毓賮賵責
May 21, 2023
If you've only seen the film with Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman then give it a read. There are two versions. I prefer the original for its ambiguity. Audiences will leave the theatre debating what happened or didn't happen next. The Broadway version rewritten to suit the taste of the director, Elia Kazan, is also excellent though by giving Maggie one terrific end speech. But neither theatre version has the happy ending of the film. Here's why.
Magnets attract. But they can also repel. That's the burden of beautiful people. The play begins with two of them pushing at one another and can't end until they stop. The other characters are merely metal shavings that fur these magnets for a time then are brushed off. Tension between Maggie and Brick propels the play heightened by another magnetic character called Flipper. He's never seen so he's never cast. But rest assured if he was, the actor would be beautiful.
Magnets attract. But they can also repel. That's the burden of beautiful people. The play begins with two of them pushing at one another and can't end until they stop. The other characters are merely metal shavings that fur these magnets for a time then are brushed off. Tension between Maggie and Brick propels the play heightened by another magnetic character called Flipper. He's never seen so he's never cast. But rest assured if he was, the actor would be beautiful.
August 24, 2019
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, written by one of the greatest American playwrights, Tennessee Williams, debuted in 1955 with its portrait of rich southerner Big Daddy, Big Mama, and two brothers sort of vying for for their dying father's inheritance. Biff, a former successful football player, is now an alcoholic, and not sleeping with his lovely wife, Maggie the Cat. I saw the film version with Paul Newman and Liz Taylor many years ago and it always stayed with me. I listened to a version of this play read by another great American playwright, Edward Albee, who reads two different last acts of the play (one highlighting Maggie a bit more), including some thoughts about theater by Williams, and a reflection on a production of the play Albee had seen on Broadway, directed by Elia Kazan.
Brick, suggestive for me of Rabbit Angstrom in Rabbit, Run, is a former athlete, lost in the past, lost in the bottle:
鈥淏ig Daddy: What makes you so restless, have you got ants in your britches?
Brick: Yes, sir. . .
Big Daddy: Why?
Brick: - Something - Hasn't - Happened. . .
Big Daddy: Yeah? What is that?
Brick [sadly]: - the click. . .
Big Daddy: Did you say the click?
Brick: Yes, click.
Big Daddy: What click?
Brick: A click that I get in my head that makes me peaceful.
Big Daddy: I sure in hell don't know what you're talking about, but it disturbs me.
Brick: It's just a mechanical thing.
Big Daddy: What is a mechanical thing?
Brick: This click that I get in my head that makes me peaceful. I got to drink till I get it.鈥�
Big Daddy鈥檚 facing death, so he confronts his lost son Brick, and as Williams says about the confrontation:
鈥淲hen something is festering in your memory or your imagination, laws of silence don't work, it's just like shutting a door and locking it on a house on fire in hope of forgetting that the house is burning. But not facing a fire doesn't put it out. Silence about a thing just magnifies it. It grows and festers in silence, becomes malignant. . . 鈥�
The big dramatic, truth-telling showdown is powerful, with terrific dialogue, stripping off the illusions they have all lived by all their lives. I listened to this play when I was in my car, and finished it there, and when I came home I read the physical copy of Death of a Salesman. In Cat Big Daddy shows he knows who he is and he tries to save Brick; in Death Biff shows he knows who he is and he tries to save Willie. To read these two plays within the same 24 hours was just like going from one explosion to another, two great cherry bombs of American theater. Death is better, Miller's best, and Cat isn't the very best Williams, but it's still great theater.
Brick, suggestive for me of Rabbit Angstrom in Rabbit, Run, is a former athlete, lost in the past, lost in the bottle:
鈥淏ig Daddy: What makes you so restless, have you got ants in your britches?
Brick: Yes, sir. . .
Big Daddy: Why?
Brick: - Something - Hasn't - Happened. . .
Big Daddy: Yeah? What is that?
Brick [sadly]: - the click. . .
Big Daddy: Did you say the click?
Brick: Yes, click.
Big Daddy: What click?
Brick: A click that I get in my head that makes me peaceful.
Big Daddy: I sure in hell don't know what you're talking about, but it disturbs me.
Brick: It's just a mechanical thing.
Big Daddy: What is a mechanical thing?
Brick: This click that I get in my head that makes me peaceful. I got to drink till I get it.鈥�
Big Daddy鈥檚 facing death, so he confronts his lost son Brick, and as Williams says about the confrontation:
鈥淲hen something is festering in your memory or your imagination, laws of silence don't work, it's just like shutting a door and locking it on a house on fire in hope of forgetting that the house is burning. But not facing a fire doesn't put it out. Silence about a thing just magnifies it. It grows and festers in silence, becomes malignant. . . 鈥�
The big dramatic, truth-telling showdown is powerful, with terrific dialogue, stripping off the illusions they have all lived by all their lives. I listened to this play when I was in my car, and finished it there, and when I came home I read the physical copy of Death of a Salesman. In Cat Big Daddy shows he knows who he is and he tries to save Brick; in Death Biff shows he knows who he is and he tries to save Willie. To read these two plays within the same 24 hours was just like going from one explosion to another, two great cherry bombs of American theater. Death is better, Miller's best, and Cat isn't the very best Williams, but it's still great theater.
October 12, 2020
Classic drama that deserves to up there with the greatest plays ever written.
The story is centered around a family in crisis, a sizzling drama of desire, avarice and deception set in the steamy American Deep South, you can almost feel the heat coming off the pages. The play condenses so much life and emotion, it's remarkable really. Feuds, tortured pasts, anger, guilt, love, jealousy, envy, revenge, sorry, sadness, lust, all crammed into a relatively short work. Would love to see it performed on stage, but the book ain't a bad alternative. Well worth reading.
The story is centered around a family in crisis, a sizzling drama of desire, avarice and deception set in the steamy American Deep South, you can almost feel the heat coming off the pages. The play condenses so much life and emotion, it's remarkable really. Feuds, tortured pasts, anger, guilt, love, jealousy, envy, revenge, sorry, sadness, lust, all crammed into a relatively short work. Would love to see it performed on stage, but the book ain't a bad alternative. Well worth reading.
July 10, 2021
In high school, we read a lot of Tennessee Williams. I really admired this playwright: he would correct, amend, alter and downright rewrite parts of his plays - even after they had been produced and staged. (I'm prone to constant edits, too!) Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is one example of a play that saw many revisions during Williams' lifetime.
I loved all that conflict and high melodrama in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Of course, in my parochial high school, the nuns never discussed or even hinted at a homosexual relationship between Skip and Brick (and that this was the reason Cat was left prowling on that hot tin roof, all on her lonesome!)
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
Back in the "stone age" when I was a teen, our teachers never alluded to any sexual references in our reading, either, but I will say this: despite being a catholic all-girls' high school, there was no active censorship of our reading materials, and what we could borrow from our high school library.
The 1958 movie version with the incomparable Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman is one of my favourites. Paul Newman, as well as the author, expressed his dissatisfaction with the removal of any references to a homosexual relationship between Brick and his best friend in this film adaptation. In the Newman/Taylor version, the tension in Cat and Brick's marriage is attributed to Skip's suicide, for which Brick blames his wife. (Cat had attempted to seduce Skip in order to show Brick that Skip was not such a loyal friend after all.) Alas, the Motion Picture Production Code was still in force up until 1968, so there was no way that Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize winning play could be properly adapted into an unabridged movie at that time.
This play is so timely in this day and age when sexual boundaries are slowly being erased - which I think is a very good thing. Time to hunt down an unabridged version of this play and give it a reread!
I loved all that conflict and high melodrama in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Of course, in my parochial high school, the nuns never discussed or even hinted at a homosexual relationship between Skip and Brick (and that this was the reason Cat was left prowling on that hot tin roof, all on her lonesome!)
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
Back in the "stone age" when I was a teen, our teachers never alluded to any sexual references in our reading, either, but I will say this: despite being a catholic all-girls' high school, there was no active censorship of our reading materials, and what we could borrow from our high school library.
The 1958 movie version with the incomparable Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman is one of my favourites. Paul Newman, as well as the author, expressed his dissatisfaction with the removal of any references to a homosexual relationship between Brick and his best friend in this film adaptation. In the Newman/Taylor version, the tension in Cat and Brick's marriage is attributed to Skip's suicide, for which Brick blames his wife. (Cat had attempted to seduce Skip in order to show Brick that Skip was not such a loyal friend after all.) Alas, the Motion Picture Production Code was still in force up until 1968, so there was no way that Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize winning play could be properly adapted into an unabridged movie at that time.
This play is so timely in this day and age when sexual boundaries are slowly being erased - which I think is a very good thing. Time to hunt down an unabridged version of this play and give it a reread!
February 18, 2021
The characters in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof all have these strange reasons for living, all based off of some sort of character flaw. The way the flaws tie all the characters together symbolically is brilliant.
Maggie especially has a strange reason to live: to be the Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with no purpose in life other than to endure the unpleasant heat, to survive it. The more she digs into the other characters, it becomes clear that although they have these strange reasons for living--like her husband, an alcoholic, who lives only for the next drink--they all seem to have this common mindset that life is miserable and all they want to do is get through it.
What really makes this work is the character Big Daddy, who has been diagnosed with cancer. The way all the other characters think only of his inheritance, and the way Big Daddy clings to life--even when it seems like he doesn't even enjoy it--is really interesting to read.
But compared with The Glass Menagerie or A Streetcar Named Desire, this play falls a little short. The dialogue doesn't feel as crisp, and it seems like it's just one giant monologue after another.
Maggie especially has a strange reason to live: to be the Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with no purpose in life other than to endure the unpleasant heat, to survive it. The more she digs into the other characters, it becomes clear that although they have these strange reasons for living--like her husband, an alcoholic, who lives only for the next drink--they all seem to have this common mindset that life is miserable and all they want to do is get through it.
What really makes this work is the character Big Daddy, who has been diagnosed with cancer. The way all the other characters think only of his inheritance, and the way Big Daddy clings to life--even when it seems like he doesn't even enjoy it--is really interesting to read.
But compared with The Glass Menagerie or A Streetcar Named Desire, this play falls a little short. The dialogue doesn't feel as crisp, and it seems like it's just one giant monologue after another.
May 5, 2020
This is a great play, but the audio version is not the way to enjoy it. I would have preferred to read it myself, but that option was not available and 鈥渓istening鈥� to a play seemed to make sense. Throughout the reading, I kept silently substituting the voices of Paul Newman, Liz Taylor and Burl Ives, and wanting to download the extraordinary movie and watch it instead.
This is a complex play about human emotions, the lies we tell ourselves and others, and how closely aligned love and hate can be, like two heads on a Roman coin. For a character who has precious little dialogue, Brick Politt makes a big impression; but much is missing when you cannot see facial expressions and have to imagine movements...for much of what Brick tells us is told with his body and his face. Maggie the Cat is, on the other hand, a woman who expresses much of what she feels verbally, so she plays a bit better in audio alone.
No one brings a Southern household alive quite like Tennessee Williams. He gets to the edge beneath the Southern drawl and honey can drip from his women while they exude poison from their pores. Big men like Big Daddy were once common in Southern society and it almost feels a shame to say you probably will not find such men in the South today.
Williams tackles the serious issue of homosexuality in this classic, and does so in a way that tells you both where the public mores stood in the 1950s and foreshadows a surprisingly more tolerant view beneath the surface. I thought him pretty brave to take on the subject and particularly to have a man such as Big Daddy express an understanding of it. I'm sure it set much of his audience on their heals at the time.
One of the difficult questions left unanswered in the play, however, is attached to unrequited love. What are we guilty of when we turn our backs on someone who loves us in a way that we are unable to return? What should a person be willing to settle for if the desire dies or is killed by the guilt? Of course, we only have Brick鈥檚 word for his own feelings, and none of these characters would be above lying to one another or to themselves, but Brick and Maggie surely still have these questions to answer when the curtain descends.
One very interesting thing this audio included was the original ending of the play and the revised ending that Williams wrote after having some suggestions from Elia Kazan. I much preferred the second ending and admired Williams all the more because he was able to set aside his ego and recognize that Kazan鈥檚 suggestions were improvements.
Listening to this play has left me with a keen desire to see it on a stage. After all, plays are meant to be seen and heard, so when you have only listened you have only gotten half of what the playwright intended to give you. Of course, half of Tennessee Williams is worth more than all of most!
This is a complex play about human emotions, the lies we tell ourselves and others, and how closely aligned love and hate can be, like two heads on a Roman coin. For a character who has precious little dialogue, Brick Politt makes a big impression; but much is missing when you cannot see facial expressions and have to imagine movements...for much of what Brick tells us is told with his body and his face. Maggie the Cat is, on the other hand, a woman who expresses much of what she feels verbally, so she plays a bit better in audio alone.
No one brings a Southern household alive quite like Tennessee Williams. He gets to the edge beneath the Southern drawl and honey can drip from his women while they exude poison from their pores. Big men like Big Daddy were once common in Southern society and it almost feels a shame to say you probably will not find such men in the South today.
Williams tackles the serious issue of homosexuality in this classic, and does so in a way that tells you both where the public mores stood in the 1950s and foreshadows a surprisingly more tolerant view beneath the surface. I thought him pretty brave to take on the subject and particularly to have a man such as Big Daddy express an understanding of it. I'm sure it set much of his audience on their heals at the time.
One of the difficult questions left unanswered in the play, however, is attached to unrequited love. What are we guilty of when we turn our backs on someone who loves us in a way that we are unable to return? What should a person be willing to settle for if the desire dies or is killed by the guilt? Of course, we only have Brick鈥檚 word for his own feelings, and none of these characters would be above lying to one another or to themselves, but Brick and Maggie surely still have these questions to answer when the curtain descends.
One very interesting thing this audio included was the original ending of the play and the revised ending that Williams wrote after having some suggestions from Elia Kazan. I much preferred the second ending and admired Williams all the more because he was able to set aside his ego and recognize that Kazan鈥檚 suggestions were improvements.
Listening to this play has left me with a keen desire to see it on a stage. After all, plays are meant to be seen and heard, so when you have only listened you have only gotten half of what the playwright intended to give you. Of course, half of Tennessee Williams is worth more than all of most!
June 18, 2018
I'm not sure that you can consider yourself a "southerner" or even from the south if you have not read Tennessee Williams' plays - all of them. I may be a transplanted Hoosier now, but rest assured, I have read and adore all of Williams' plays. They are, without a doubt, some of the very best of American literature and, by far, in the top tier of Southern Lit. This, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, is one of his best!
August 22, 2020
A classic play, but it still tastes fresh. By American standards (I apologize to my American GR-friends!) this is an in-depth character study with strong protagonists. I think of Brick, who drinks away the homosexual nature of the "pure" relationship with his friend Skipper, his wife Margareth who - horny as a cat on a hot tin roof - desperately tries to get access to him, and Big Daddy who can't handle his nearing death. I also saw the 1959-movie, but the alternative Hollywood version of the third act is an absolute failure, compared to the original!
July 21, 2024
Tennessee Williams' "Cat on A Hot Tin Roof" is an emotionally difficult read. The overwhelming sense of jealousy, greed, and love gone amiss among the characters is painful to witness. It's also what Williams excelled at. His "big three" ("Cat on A Hot Tin Roof," "A Streetcar Named Desire," and "The Glass Menagerie") all have the same sickening sweet sensibility, the air of rot and corruption, of human dysfunction and pain that Williams captured so well.
Son Brick, the "has been" jock is the apple of Big Daddy and Big Mama's eye. Brick's alcoholism is enabled by most of the family and politely ignored by family friends. Not even his father's diagnosis of terminal cancer seems to reach him. Brick seems bemused by the entire situation, much to the chagrin of his mother, Big Mama, and his wife, "Maggie." Older brother Gooper and his wife Mae, along with their five "no-necked monster" children are greedy and circle like vultures under the guise of doting care. Big Mama is an emotionally manipulative Southern Belle will past her prime. Her coarseness is an embarrassment to all except herself. Big Daddy is blunt and cruelly honest. Together they are a toxic family.
Williams is a master in his portrayal of these individuals but also the social norms and expectations they all run afoul of. Try as they might they can never even fake normalcy or familial love. There is no happiness here.
Son Brick, the "has been" jock is the apple of Big Daddy and Big Mama's eye. Brick's alcoholism is enabled by most of the family and politely ignored by family friends. Not even his father's diagnosis of terminal cancer seems to reach him. Brick seems bemused by the entire situation, much to the chagrin of his mother, Big Mama, and his wife, "Maggie." Older brother Gooper and his wife Mae, along with their five "no-necked monster" children are greedy and circle like vultures under the guise of doting care. Big Mama is an emotionally manipulative Southern Belle will past her prime. Her coarseness is an embarrassment to all except herself. Big Daddy is blunt and cruelly honest. Together they are a toxic family.
Williams is a master in his portrayal of these individuals but also the social norms and expectations they all run afoul of. Try as they might they can never even fake normalcy or familial love. There is no happiness here.
November 25, 2022
"Ah, voi, oamenii slabi, oameni slabi si frumosi... care stiti sa pierdeti cu gratie. Voi aveti nevoie de cineva... (stinge si lampa de noptiera) care sa va ia in mana... usurel, si sa va restituie viata, ca pe un obiect de aur care v-a scapat."
Tennessee Williams a fost rasplatit cu premiul Pulitzer pentru aceasta creatie iar ecranizarea ei a avut in prim plan doi mari actori: Elizabeth Taylor si Paul Newman. Trebuie sa observam ca toate operele sale au beneficiat de o selectie a unor actori din cale afara de consacrati si frumosi: Marlon Brando si Vivian Leigh ("Un tramvai numit Dorinta") sau Richard Burton si Ava Gardner ("Noaptea Iguanei").
"Pisica pe acoperisul fierbinte" este o piesa alcatuita din 3 acte cu personaje cheie precum Margaret, Brick, Sora Mare, Mama Mare, Papa cel Mare, Cooper si copiii.
In ceea ce priveste actiunea ne aflam pe o plantatie de bumbac din delta fluviului Mississippi si avem parte de o drama conjugala oarecum neobisnuita. O cunoastem pe frumoasa Margaret impreuna cu sotul ei Brick discutand despre copiii neastamparati ai cumnatei lor si despre nemultumirea ei legata de faptul ca ei nu au copii.
Margaret e convinsa ca fratele lui Brick incearca sa intre pe sub pielea lui Papa cel Mare, bolnav de cancer, ca acesta sa-i lase lui toata averea.
Brick, un fost atlet, a cazut in dizgratie devenind alcoolic si violent. Motivul pentru care se comporta asa este faptul ca Margaret s-a culcat cu cel mai bun prieten al sau ca sa dovedeasca orientarea sexuala a celor doi barbati. Din aceasta pricina Brick refuza sa se mai atinga de ea iar Margaret se simte chinuita:
"Dar tu stii cum ma simt, Brick? Ma simt ca o pisica pe un acoperis de tabla fierbinte."
Cum se va lamuri aceasta drama si cine va intra in posesia averii lui Papa cel Mare ramane sa aflati citind cartea.
Observam ca si in aceasta piesa avem de-a face cu tematica specifica autorului: insingurarea, chestiunile de morala, vanatoarea de zestre, violenta conjugala, problemele de casnicie, homosexualitatea.
Am remarcat dialogul dintre Brick si Papa cel Mare din actul al II-lea care este demn de citit si apreciat fiind scris cu mult talent si emotie. De asemenea, Margaret este o eroina foarte bine creata, cu replici memorabile.
In incheiere va las cu cateva citate apartinandu-i lui Margaret ce dezvaluie caracterul ei patimas:
"Traind alaturi de un om pe care-l iubesti, te poti simti mai singur decat atunci cand nu ai pe nimeni... daca cel pe care il iubesti nu simte nimic pentru tine."
"Totdeauna ai avut aerul asta detasat, de parca participi la un joc fara sa te intereseze daca o sa castigi sau nu, si acum ca ai pierdut jocul - de fapt nu l-ai pierdut, ci l-ai abandonat - ai acel farmec rar, pe care il intalnesti doar la oamenii foarte batrani sau bolnavii incurabili, farmecul celui invins."
"Stii, daca as sti ca niciodata, niciodata, niciodata n-o sa mai vrei sa faci dragoste cu mine... m-as duce la bucatarie, as lua cutitul cel mai lung si mai ascutit si mi l-as infige direct in inima."
"In noaptea asta, tarziu, am sa-ti spun ca te iubesc si poate ca pana atunci ai sa fii destul de beat ca sa ma crezi."
"Pentru ca fiintele umane viseaza la nemurire, uite de asta. Dar cei mai multi doresc nemurirea pe pamant si nu in ceruri."
Tennessee Williams a fost rasplatit cu premiul Pulitzer pentru aceasta creatie iar ecranizarea ei a avut in prim plan doi mari actori: Elizabeth Taylor si Paul Newman. Trebuie sa observam ca toate operele sale au beneficiat de o selectie a unor actori din cale afara de consacrati si frumosi: Marlon Brando si Vivian Leigh ("Un tramvai numit Dorinta") sau Richard Burton si Ava Gardner ("Noaptea Iguanei").
"Pisica pe acoperisul fierbinte" este o piesa alcatuita din 3 acte cu personaje cheie precum Margaret, Brick, Sora Mare, Mama Mare, Papa cel Mare, Cooper si copiii.
In ceea ce priveste actiunea ne aflam pe o plantatie de bumbac din delta fluviului Mississippi si avem parte de o drama conjugala oarecum neobisnuita. O cunoastem pe frumoasa Margaret impreuna cu sotul ei Brick discutand despre copiii neastamparati ai cumnatei lor si despre nemultumirea ei legata de faptul ca ei nu au copii.
Margaret e convinsa ca fratele lui Brick incearca sa intre pe sub pielea lui Papa cel Mare, bolnav de cancer, ca acesta sa-i lase lui toata averea.
Brick, un fost atlet, a cazut in dizgratie devenind alcoolic si violent. Motivul pentru care se comporta asa este faptul ca Margaret s-a culcat cu cel mai bun prieten al sau ca sa dovedeasca orientarea sexuala a celor doi barbati. Din aceasta pricina Brick refuza sa se mai atinga de ea iar Margaret se simte chinuita:
"Dar tu stii cum ma simt, Brick? Ma simt ca o pisica pe un acoperis de tabla fierbinte."
Cum se va lamuri aceasta drama si cine va intra in posesia averii lui Papa cel Mare ramane sa aflati citind cartea.
Observam ca si in aceasta piesa avem de-a face cu tematica specifica autorului: insingurarea, chestiunile de morala, vanatoarea de zestre, violenta conjugala, problemele de casnicie, homosexualitatea.
Am remarcat dialogul dintre Brick si Papa cel Mare din actul al II-lea care este demn de citit si apreciat fiind scris cu mult talent si emotie. De asemenea, Margaret este o eroina foarte bine creata, cu replici memorabile.
In incheiere va las cu cateva citate apartinandu-i lui Margaret ce dezvaluie caracterul ei patimas:
"Traind alaturi de un om pe care-l iubesti, te poti simti mai singur decat atunci cand nu ai pe nimeni... daca cel pe care il iubesti nu simte nimic pentru tine."
"Totdeauna ai avut aerul asta detasat, de parca participi la un joc fara sa te intereseze daca o sa castigi sau nu, si acum ca ai pierdut jocul - de fapt nu l-ai pierdut, ci l-ai abandonat - ai acel farmec rar, pe care il intalnesti doar la oamenii foarte batrani sau bolnavii incurabili, farmecul celui invins."
"Stii, daca as sti ca niciodata, niciodata, niciodata n-o sa mai vrei sa faci dragoste cu mine... m-as duce la bucatarie, as lua cutitul cel mai lung si mai ascutit si mi l-as infige direct in inima."
"In noaptea asta, tarziu, am sa-ti spun ca te iubesc si poate ca pana atunci ai sa fii destul de beat ca sa ma crezi."
"Pentru ca fiintele umane viseaza la nemurire, uite de asta. Dar cei mai multi doresc nemurirea pe pamant si nu in ceruri."
April 8, 2020
I'm a big fan of Tennessee Williams. While I love all of his plays, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is especially dear and meaningful to me. There were times in my life when I felt like a cat on a hot tin roof. Who hasn't? Williams was a master of characterization, especially of female characterization. He did an amazing job with bringing alive 'the cat' in the play. She as a character is one of my personal all time favourites.
As I think of this play, I think of a film version as well. It is not often that I can say this but, I love both the play and the film. Despite the fact that the film is different in many ways, I still liked it. Nevertheless, I have to say that the film failed the convey the ambiguity, suppleness and depth of the play. I guess that homosexuality wasn't something that Hollywood was ready to face at that time. I'm not saying that the protagonist is gay, but in the play they're allusions to it, and the film ignored them, not to mention that it makes some significant changes that pretty much take a lot from the story. Why do I like the film then? The acting. Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman played the roles of their lives. Enough said. This play is a masterpiece. It really is.
As I think of this play, I think of a film version as well. It is not often that I can say this but, I love both the play and the film. Despite the fact that the film is different in many ways, I still liked it. Nevertheless, I have to say that the film failed the convey the ambiguity, suppleness and depth of the play. I guess that homosexuality wasn't something that Hollywood was ready to face at that time. I'm not saying that the protagonist is gay, but in the play they're allusions to it, and the film ignored them, not to mention that it makes some significant changes that pretty much take a lot from the story. Why do I like the film then? The acting. Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman played the roles of their lives. Enough said. This play is a masterpiece. It really is.
May 29, 2015
Set on a large, rich and successful Mississippi plantation in the heat of a 1950's summer, family members come together to celebrate a big birthday party and bring along their avarice and greed as well as their mendacity in hopes of acquiring a big piece of inheritance when Big Daddy kicks the bucket.
I have always loved the movie with Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman thus decided to find out if the play was similar and was surprised at two major differences....
Anyway, all the characters are there....Brick, Maggie the Cat, Big Daddy, Big Mama and Gooper and Mae with their five screaming no-neck monsters, as well as issues of alcoholism and homosexuality, but I find I really much prefer the movie over the written work this time.
July 19, 2011
I loved this play as a teenager -- the feverish pace, the soaring poetry of the big speeches, the way Big Daddy was everything my father wasn't and the way Maggie keeps sighing over Brick. But after thirty years of living, I just don't read this play in the same way. There are so many things I swallowed whole as a teen that seem laughably far-fetched as an adult.
Brick is a thirty year old man. Not a fifteen year old boy. Yet he still doesn't know if he's gay or straight? I mean, come on! His self-doubt resonated with me as a teen, but now it just seems silly. A real gay man -- if he were gay -- would have done a lot more than just shake hands with Skipper every night. And a real straight man -- especially a gorgeous football star from a very wealthy family -- would have had lots, and lots, and lots of women besides Maggie The Cat!
Maggie is just as unreal as Brick. Sexual attraction is all very well, but at some point wouldn't she notice that Brick is weak-willed, irresponsible, cowardly, and selfish? She keeps saying that she'll "die" if he doesn't make love to her again. She never praises any of his personality traits, just his phenomenal good looks. How many marriages are really like this? Even when she admits he's weak, she goes into a big speech about "you weak, beautiful people" like Brick's spineless alcholic need to leech off everyone else is incredibly poignant and sweet. Where is this woman from???
What you really have here is a gay man pining over an unobtainable fantasy, not a real woman trying to create a working marriage with a real man. Maggie fixates on all the most unreal things -- Brick's phenomenal beauty (which magically gets even more irresistable once he becomes a hopeless drunk) his childlike helplessness, his inability to protect himself, his parents or his wife . . . all things that would send a real-life woman running for the hills.
Notice that it's the "evil" characters, Mae and Gooper, who have the concerns real married people actually have, i.e. raising their children, obtaining financial security, putting down roots.
In what universe are these the bad guys?
Brick is a thirty year old man. Not a fifteen year old boy. Yet he still doesn't know if he's gay or straight? I mean, come on! His self-doubt resonated with me as a teen, but now it just seems silly. A real gay man -- if he were gay -- would have done a lot more than just shake hands with Skipper every night. And a real straight man -- especially a gorgeous football star from a very wealthy family -- would have had lots, and lots, and lots of women besides Maggie The Cat!
Maggie is just as unreal as Brick. Sexual attraction is all very well, but at some point wouldn't she notice that Brick is weak-willed, irresponsible, cowardly, and selfish? She keeps saying that she'll "die" if he doesn't make love to her again. She never praises any of his personality traits, just his phenomenal good looks. How many marriages are really like this? Even when she admits he's weak, she goes into a big speech about "you weak, beautiful people" like Brick's spineless alcholic need to leech off everyone else is incredibly poignant and sweet. Where is this woman from???
What you really have here is a gay man pining over an unobtainable fantasy, not a real woman trying to create a working marriage with a real man. Maggie fixates on all the most unreal things -- Brick's phenomenal beauty (which magically gets even more irresistable once he becomes a hopeless drunk) his childlike helplessness, his inability to protect himself, his parents or his wife . . . all things that would send a real-life woman running for the hills.
Notice that it's the "evil" characters, Mae and Gooper, who have the concerns real married people actually have, i.e. raising their children, obtaining financial security, putting down roots.
In what universe are these the bad guys?
November 14, 2019
"Gde postoji ljubav i iskrenost, zagrljaj je neizbe啪an."
Uz Pijane Ivana Viripajeva u Ateljeu 212, predstave Tenesi Vilijamsa su mi najbolji "noviji" komadi na beogradskim daskama koje 啪ivot zna膷e. (Hm, noviji, a napisani pre 6 decenija?). Ma膷ka na usijanom limenom krovu, Staklena mena啪erija, Tramvaj zvani 啪elja.
Svakako, pozori拧te treba vi拧e gledati nego 膷itati, ali ova kultna predstava o hipokriziji u porodi膷nim odnosima ("Do 膽avola, mora拧 da 啪ivi拧 s tim - osim hipkrizije nema ni膷eg drugog u 膷emu se mo啪e 啪iveti, zar nije tako?"), alkoholizmu ("Ne, 膰ale, nije tako. Postoji jo拧 ne拧to u 膷emu se mo啪e 啪iveti! -艩ta? - Ovo! Alkohol! - To nije 啪ivot, to je izbegavanje 啪ivota!"), samoograni膷avanju seksualnosti, je jedna od onih koju posle gledanja treba i 膷itati. Predstava tokom koje se hvatam za telefon da zabele啪im neki citat. 膶itati dramu je gospodskije, a citata ima poprili膷no - duhovitih, 啪ivotno filozofskih, dru拧tvenih komentara koji i danas nalaze svoje mesto (a 50-ih godina u SAD su morali biti prili膷no kontroverzni).
Interesantno mi je i koliko detaljno Vilijams daje upustva glumcima i rediteljima. Nije to samo 'pribli啪ava se publici sa grimasom na licu', ve膰 膷itavi pasusi poput ovog:
"Brikova ravnodu拧nost je najzad probijena. Njegov puls se ubrzao; na 膷elu su mu gra拧ke znoja; disanje mu postaje ubrzano i glas promukao. [...]
Ptica koju 啪elim da uhvatim u mre啪u ove drame nije re拧enje psiholo拧kog problema jednog 膷oveka. Ja poku拧avam da uhvatim istinski kvalitet iskustva u grupi ljudi u maglovitu treperavu igru koja izmi膷e i silovito se menja, tu uzajamnu igru ljudskih bi膰a koja 啪ive na olujnom oblaku op拧te krize. [itd itd]"
Uz Pijane Ivana Viripajeva u Ateljeu 212, predstave Tenesi Vilijamsa su mi najbolji "noviji" komadi na beogradskim daskama koje 啪ivot zna膷e. (Hm, noviji, a napisani pre 6 decenija?). Ma膷ka na usijanom limenom krovu, Staklena mena啪erija, Tramvaj zvani 啪elja.
Svakako, pozori拧te treba vi拧e gledati nego 膷itati, ali ova kultna predstava o hipokriziji u porodi膷nim odnosima ("Do 膽avola, mora拧 da 啪ivi拧 s tim - osim hipkrizije nema ni膷eg drugog u 膷emu se mo啪e 啪iveti, zar nije tako?"), alkoholizmu ("Ne, 膰ale, nije tako. Postoji jo拧 ne拧to u 膷emu se mo啪e 啪iveti! -艩ta? - Ovo! Alkohol! - To nije 啪ivot, to je izbegavanje 啪ivota!"), samoograni膷avanju seksualnosti, je jedna od onih koju posle gledanja treba i 膷itati. Predstava tokom koje se hvatam za telefon da zabele啪im neki citat. 膶itati dramu je gospodskije, a citata ima poprili膷no - duhovitih, 啪ivotno filozofskih, dru拧tvenih komentara koji i danas nalaze svoje mesto (a 50-ih godina u SAD su morali biti prili膷no kontroverzni).
Interesantno mi je i koliko detaljno Vilijams daje upustva glumcima i rediteljima. Nije to samo 'pribli啪ava se publici sa grimasom na licu', ve膰 膷itavi pasusi poput ovog:
"Brikova ravnodu拧nost je najzad probijena. Njegov puls se ubrzao; na 膷elu su mu gra拧ke znoja; disanje mu postaje ubrzano i glas promukao. [...]
Ptica koju 啪elim da uhvatim u mre啪u ove drame nije re拧enje psiholo拧kog problema jednog 膷oveka. Ja poku拧avam da uhvatim istinski kvalitet iskustva u grupi ljudi u maglovitu treperavu igru koja izmi膷e i silovito se menja, tu uzajamnu igru ljudskih bi膰a koja 啪ive na olujnom oblaku op拧te krize. [itd itd]"
March 21, 2017
Tennessee Williams has truly created a masterpiece. Greed, jealousy, homosexuality, indifference, alcoholism, and desire are all laid bare in one way or another in this play. Maggie the Cat is full of life and is honest if she does come from a poor family and feel that she is walking on a hot tin roof all the time. Some of the other characters in the play may not be as full of life as Maggie. What she wants most of all is a baby from her husband Brick because she knows Brick is Big Daddy's favorite son. Big Daddy is dying and has no will. Maggie thinks a baby will secure the future for her and her husband.
I love this powerful Southern story. Everything is here: the alcohol, money, greed, sex, children, and land. It is written with a fine hand in a beautiful voice. Never does Williams make a false step. This is a play I can read over and over again, and I love the title.
Perfect.
I love this powerful Southern story. Everything is here: the alcohol, money, greed, sex, children, and land. It is written with a fine hand in a beautiful voice. Never does Williams make a false step. This is a play I can read over and over again, and I love the title.
Perfect.
May 9, 2013
Very powerful, enjoyable read. I particularly liked having the very specific stage directions, so meticulously explained and set out by Williams for readers as well as directors and performers. Also enjoyed the accompanying essays about the development of the play along with director Elia Kazin and Williams' own essay about the play.
These are not people I would want to spend time with; they don't want to spend time with each other. The way Williams lets the anger, frustration, thwarted love, hatred, jealousy, fear, and so many other emotions out through this family's interactions is so well done.
I have not read a play for years but will definitely make drama more a part of my routine in the future, especially Tennessee Williams.
Highly recommended.
These are not people I would want to spend time with; they don't want to spend time with each other. The way Williams lets the anger, frustration, thwarted love, hatred, jealousy, fear, and so many other emotions out through this family's interactions is so well done.
I have not read a play for years but will definitely make drama more a part of my routine in the future, especially Tennessee Williams.
Highly recommended.
July 5, 2021
Obra de teatro corta, f谩cilmente se lee en un d铆a. Trata sobre la hipocres铆a, la ambici贸n ante un padre que se va a morir y tiene una gran fortuna que dejar. Y otros cuantos temas en torno a lo mismo.
Pero no me gust贸, no es mi tipo de historia.
Pero no me gust贸, no es mi tipo de historia.
January 23, 2025
禺賵賳丿賳 賳賲丕蹖卮賳丕賲赖 诏乇亘賴 乇賵蹖 卮蹖乇賵丕賳蹖 丿丕睾 亘賴 丕賳丿丕夭賴 丿蹖丿賳 賮蹖賱賲卮 亘丕 亘丕夭蹖 夭蹖亘丕蹖 倬賱 賳蹖賵賲賳 賵 丕賱蹖夭丕亘鬲 鬲蹖賱賵乇 噩匕丕亘 賵 噩丕賱亘 亘賵丿.
December 8, 2016
Well first I must confess reading play scripts is not my favorite thing, including this one even thought it won both Pulitzer and Drama Critics Circle awards. I'm sure this story caused quite a stir when it was first published in 1954, even so Tennessee Williams was famous for continuing to rewrite aspects of his plays several times over decades. My book is the 1974 version of the play, though I'm not sure which parts have been revised from the original, is this the better one ???
We're on a 28 acre plantation with Big Daddy the father and owner of the place returning from a medical appointment with Big Mama his disparaged wife, who is reviled several times for spending lots of Big, Daddy's money. Eldest Son Gooper ( yep - a horrid name) the eldest brother who is a lawyer is here and has brought his wife Mae and their 5 children to be by his ailing father's bedside. And finally we have the favored son Brick , beloved by his father but obviously an alcoholic who is hateful to his wife Margaret who unsuccessfully tried to use her beauty and sexiness to keep him with her. Well it seems Big Daddy has had news that he's on his way out of this world and before he gets very far the vitriolic accusations begin to fly. It's all in here the greed, sex, spitefulness, questioned homosexuality, abusive relationships, and manipulation to usurp the old mans Estate before he is even dead. What a collection of ungracious and uncharitable folk make up this cozy group. One of the characters here is nick - named Margaret the Cat, but I think the name of the play should come from the word caterwauling which does indeed mean screeching like a cat , and which is what these folks do most of this 3 act play. I seem to remember seeing this on television years ago with Liz Taylor and Paul Newman ,certainly I need to watch it again , as reading it didn't do much for me . 3 stars
We're on a 28 acre plantation with Big Daddy the father and owner of the place returning from a medical appointment with Big Mama his disparaged wife, who is reviled several times for spending lots of Big, Daddy's money. Eldest Son Gooper ( yep - a horrid name) the eldest brother who is a lawyer is here and has brought his wife Mae and their 5 children to be by his ailing father's bedside. And finally we have the favored son Brick , beloved by his father but obviously an alcoholic who is hateful to his wife Margaret who unsuccessfully tried to use her beauty and sexiness to keep him with her. Well it seems Big Daddy has had news that he's on his way out of this world and before he gets very far the vitriolic accusations begin to fly. It's all in here the greed, sex, spitefulness, questioned homosexuality, abusive relationships, and manipulation to usurp the old mans Estate before he is even dead. What a collection of ungracious and uncharitable folk make up this cozy group. One of the characters here is nick - named Margaret the Cat, but I think the name of the play should come from the word caterwauling which does indeed mean screeching like a cat , and which is what these folks do most of this 3 act play. I seem to remember seeing this on television years ago with Liz Taylor and Paul Newman ,certainly I need to watch it again , as reading it didn't do much for me . 3 stars
January 7, 2020
The more I read, the more I want to read. I have seen Richard Brooks's film version of with Paul Newman and Liz Taylor several times, but now I realize that it wasn't as good as the play.
There is something about family coming together when the patriarch is about to die. Perhaps I should have said coming apart rather than coming together. The characters of Gooper, his wife and their "no-neck monster" children are savagely drawn as they attempt to cut Brick out of his inheritance, treating him and his wife Margaret out of their inheritance out of spite and avarice.
I wish I could see a good performance of the play.
There is something about family coming together when the patriarch is about to die. Perhaps I should have said coming apart rather than coming together. The characters of Gooper, his wife and their "no-neck monster" children are savagely drawn as they attempt to cut Brick out of his inheritance, treating him and his wife Margaret out of their inheritance out of spite and avarice.
I wish I could see a good performance of the play.
Shelved as 'to-buy'
July 4, 2022Seen it on Broadway in 2013.
With Scarlett Johansson playing Maggie and Benjamin Walker as Brick.
Seventh row if I remember correctly. Unfortunately you were not allowed to take pictures in the theater. So that bit in the bottom right that you see up there is totally not a picture that we took in the theater. ;)
With Scarlett Johansson playing Maggie and Benjamin Walker as Brick.
Seventh row if I remember correctly. Unfortunately you were not allowed to take pictures in the theater. So that bit in the bottom right that you see up there is totally not a picture that we took in the theater. ;)
January 2, 2024
Essere o non Essere?
Una casa colonica del profondo sud statunitense.
Una famiglia che ha fondato la sua fortuna sul cotone si riunisce per il sessantacinquesimo compleanno del capostipite.
Come nelle migliori r茅union tra 鈥減arenti serpenti鈥� la prospettiva di una ricca eredit脿 alimenta le perfidie.
C鈥櫭� qualcos鈥檃ltro, per貌, che sotto il coperchio continua a sobbollire.
Un dolore sordo ma costante.
鈥漀on vivo con te.
Stiamo nella stessa gabbia.鈥�
Cos矛 Margaret risponde a suo marito Brick.
Lui il figlio minore,il preferito, nonostante sia palesemente alcolizzato da ch茅 Skipper, il suo migliore amico, 猫 morto.
Lei Margaret, la gatta pronta a tirare fuori gli artigli per difendere la sua posizione benestante ma anche l鈥檃more profondo per l鈥檜omo che l鈥檋a sposata.
Disposta a tutto anche a sopravvivere sopra un tetto che scotta鈥�
Meraviglioso dramma, andato in scena a Broadway nel 1955 con un testo rimaneggiato dal regista Elia Kazan.
Oggi, fortunatamente, leggiamo il testo originario, cos矛 come ideato dall鈥檃utore.
Quanto a lungo si pu貌 sopportare una vita costruita sulle bugie?
Rifugiarsi nell鈥檃lcool per anestetizzare il dolore oppure fuggire attraverso la morte?
Il castello di ipocrsie prima o poi crolla:
basta solo un mattoncino (Brick!) instabile e tutto viene gi霉鈥�
鈥滾a tattica del silenzio non funziona. Quando qualcosa si incancrenisce nel ricordo, o nella propria immaginazione, la tattica del silenzio non funziona: 猫 come chiudere a chiave la porta di una casa che va a fuoco sperando di dimenticare che sta bruciando. Se non affronti le fiamme, non le spegni. Non parlarne rende quel pensiero pi煤 grande: cresce e si incancrenisce in silenzio, diventa maligno鈥︹€�
Una casa colonica del profondo sud statunitense.
Una famiglia che ha fondato la sua fortuna sul cotone si riunisce per il sessantacinquesimo compleanno del capostipite.
Come nelle migliori r茅union tra 鈥減arenti serpenti鈥� la prospettiva di una ricca eredit脿 alimenta le perfidie.
C鈥櫭� qualcos鈥檃ltro, per貌, che sotto il coperchio continua a sobbollire.
Un dolore sordo ma costante.
鈥漀on vivo con te.
Stiamo nella stessa gabbia.鈥�
Cos矛 Margaret risponde a suo marito Brick.
Lui il figlio minore,il preferito, nonostante sia palesemente alcolizzato da ch茅 Skipper, il suo migliore amico, 猫 morto.
Lei Margaret, la gatta pronta a tirare fuori gli artigli per difendere la sua posizione benestante ma anche l鈥檃more profondo per l鈥檜omo che l鈥檋a sposata.
Disposta a tutto anche a sopravvivere sopra un tetto che scotta鈥�
Meraviglioso dramma, andato in scena a Broadway nel 1955 con un testo rimaneggiato dal regista Elia Kazan.
Oggi, fortunatamente, leggiamo il testo originario, cos矛 come ideato dall鈥檃utore.
Quanto a lungo si pu貌 sopportare una vita costruita sulle bugie?
Rifugiarsi nell鈥檃lcool per anestetizzare il dolore oppure fuggire attraverso la morte?
Il castello di ipocrsie prima o poi crolla:
basta solo un mattoncino (Brick!) instabile e tutto viene gi霉鈥�
鈥滾a tattica del silenzio non funziona. Quando qualcosa si incancrenisce nel ricordo, o nella propria immaginazione, la tattica del silenzio non funziona: 猫 come chiudere a chiave la porta di una casa che va a fuoco sperando di dimenticare che sta bruciando. Se non affronti le fiamme, non le spegni. Non parlarne rende quel pensiero pi煤 grande: cresce e si incancrenisce in silenzio, diventa maligno鈥︹€�
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