The story takes place at the Mississippi mansion of Big Daddy Pollitt, a former field hand and overseer who worked hard to make himself master of (as he terms it) "28,000 acres of the richest land this side of the valley Nile." Big Daddy has two sons. Gooper, the elder, is a lawyer married to a grasping woman named Mae, with five kids and one more on the way. Brick, the younger, is a high school football hero whose career as a sportscaster on TV has been interrupted by his alcoholism. Brick's wife, Maggie, is an ambitious young woman whose description of herself gives the play its title. Brick refuses to sleep with Maggie, jeopardizing (in her view) their chances of inheriting Big Daddy's estate. And inheriting the estate is very much the issue of the day, because although Big Daddy and his coarse, overbearing wife Big Momma have not yet been told, the fact is that Big Daddy has terminal cancer and is about to die.
The main themes of the play are timeless: we want what we want, whether or not it's good for us; greed and mendacity never, ever go away; and the will to survive - to cling to life at all costs - is indomitable. These fundamental aspects of the human condition are things we all share, and watching Big Daddy and his brood grapple with them makes for the most compelling kind of drama.
The first of the play's three acts is focused on Maggie and Brick, and rightly belongs to Juliana Stefanski, as Margaret "Maggie" Politt, whose energy and vivacity and growing desperation as the "cat on a hot tin roof" captures the essence of the character. You see in her a sense of raw calculation, as if each of her varied and many attempts to seduce, or at least get through to, her indifferent husband were a carefully planned stratagem or tactic...and not necessarily something she's not tried before.
The center of the play, in Act Two, is a long conversation between Big Daddy and Brick. Bill Edwards, so welcome again on stage in this, his self-professed favorite role, dominates this section as the patriarch. From the moment of his entrance, chomping a huge cigar and pausing to survey his kingdom, Edwards owns this role. He plays it in an entirely straightforward manner: this is a man who enjoys his power, enjoys his life, and intends to hold onto both as long as possible. But he also sincerely wants to understand why his favorite son went so astray. Marrick O’Quin embraces the character of Brick Politt and conjures the world of hurt in which Brick languishes in a balance of petulance and stoicism. He plays the character to open a window on the man's wounds without dissipating his enigmatic aura, the notion of a Brick who quietly self-destructs over an unbearable truth.
The final third of Cat finds Big Daddy largely absent while his relatives squabble over the estate (even though Big Daddy remains very much alive), and it is here that Big Momma comes into her own. Mary Bishop is terrific in this role, and shows us the heart and spirit of this woman, who has suffered but learned from her long marriage to Big Daddy, and her surprising assertiveness near the end of the play is exciting and genuine.
As Gooper, the Pollitt’s first-born son and his society-climbing and fertile wife Mae, Gregg Cupp and Ann Lemley are a beautifully-realized pair of opportunistic partners, circling as the smell of mortality rises from the doomed Big Daddy. Their rambunctious brood of children or "No-Neck Monsters" as Maggie refers to them, is played convincingly by Abby Fowler, MaCayla Hughes, and William Lemley.
The cast is rounded out by Art Jones as the robust-voiced Reverend Tooker, and Clark Middleton as Dr. Baugh who witnesses the maneuvers Gooper and Mae set up to tell Big Mama the truth about Big Daddy’s condition. Linda Henson, Joey Jones, and Rebekah Conner play the fluid house staff who keep the house running.
The play is directed by Jamie Taylor, now entering his eleventh season with the Theatre Company. He has been involved with many Theatre Company productions and has served as President of the organization, as well as a member of the governing board. Dana O’Quin is Assistant Director. She has also been involved with a number of Theatre Company productions and is a member of the governing board of the Theatre Company and Ozark Arts Council.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955 and continues to be relevant today. It is considered one of Tennessee Williams’ finest works and an example of the poetic dialogue, the symbolism, and the highly original characters for which Williams is noted.
The cast of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is made of members the Theatre Company and supporters of Hospice of the Hills.
Hospice of the Hills is a community-based non-profit hospice provider.
