Author and Language: Tennessee Williams, English
Play Structure: 3 Acts
Cast Breakdown: 9 Men, 8 Women
Run Time: 112 min.
Genre Identification: Drama
Bio: "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" is the story of a Southern family in crisis, focusing on the turbulent relationship of a husband and wife, Brick and Maggie ("The Cat") Pollitt, and their interaction with Brick's family over the course of one evening gathering at the family estate in Mississippi, ostensibly to celebrate the birthday of patriarch and tycoon "Big Daddy" Pollitt. Maggie, though witty and beautiful, has escaped a childhood of desperate poverty to marry into the wealthy Pollitt family, but finds herself suffering in an unfulfilling marriage. Brick, an aging football hero, has neglected his wife and further infuriates her by ignoring his brother's attempts to gain control of the family fortune. Brick's indifference and his near-continuous drinking dates back to the recent suicide of his friend Skipper. Big Daddy is unaware that he has cancer and will never live to see another birthday; his doctors and his family have conspired to keep this information from him and his wife. His relatives are in attendance and attempt to present themselves in the best possible light, hoping to receive the definitive share of Big Daddy's enormous wealth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_on_a_Hot_Tin_Roof
Publication Info: Copyright 1954, 1955, 1958, Tennessee Williams, Dramatists Play Service, Inc
Licensing and Rights: Dramatists Play Service, Inc
Exegesis
1. Mendacity - a word Brick uses to describe his disgust with the world
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_on_a_Hot_Tin_Roof
2. Utter - to give audible expression to (something), verb
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/utter
3. Oilcloth cover - (Clothing, Personal Arts & Crafts / Textiles) waterproof material made by treating one side of a cotton fabric with a drying oil, or a synthetic resin
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/oilcloth
4. Remittances to us - A remittance is a transfer of money by a foreign worker to his or her home country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remittance
5. Dotes on you, honey - to be lavish or excessive in one's attention, fondness, or affection —usually used with on
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dotes
6. Lech for me - any strong desire or liking, noun
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lech
7. Rotary - is an organization of service clubs known as Rotary Clubs located all over the world. It is a secular organization open to all persons regardless of race, color, creed, gender, or political preference. There are more than 32,000 clubs and over 1.2 million members worldwide. The members of Rotary Clubs are known as Rotarians. The stated purpose of the organization is to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. Members usually meet weekly for breakfast, lunch or dinner, which is a social event as well as an opportunity to organize work on their service goals.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_International
8. Flop-house - A flophouse (English: doss-house or dosshouse) is a place that offers very cheap lodging, generally by providing only minimal services.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flophouse
9. Aerial - gymnastics move performed in acro dance and various martial arts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial
10. Bearskin Cap - A bearskin is a tall fur cap, usually worn as part of a ceremonial military uniform. Traditionally, the bearskin was the headgear of grenadiers, and is still worn by grenadier and guards regiments in various armies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearskin
Fable Plot Summary
The show opens in a house in Mississippi in 1954, which is owned by Big Daddy. It is Big Daddy’s birthday but he is very sick due to the fact that he has cancer and is dying. His son Brick and wife Maggie are at the house with Big Mamma, his brother Gooper, his wife Mae and their 2 no-neck monster children. Gooper and Mae are there for one reason, inheriting Big Daddy’s enormous wealth and property. While the two are trying to weasel their way into Big Daddy’s will, Brick and Maggie are dealing with their own issues. Brick is a huge alcoholic and is non conformational while Maggie is fighting to save their marriage and trying to gain the love and respect for both her and Brick from Big Daddy. As the show goes on we discover that Gooper and Mae have been “spying” on and listening to Brick and Maggie at night time and tell Big Mamma that Brick and Maggie don’t even sleep in the same bed, he sleeps on the couch because he is “afraid” to touch her. Maggie confronts Brick about this and accuses him of being gay. Brick yells at her. Big Daddy, after hearing about Gooper and Mae spying on Brick and Maggie, kicks them out of the house with nothing to inherit. In the end, Big Daddy finally gives what Brick was looking for, the love and respect he had always wanted.
Plot Summary
Act 1 - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a three-act play showcasing the turbulent lives of the Pollitt family, led by Big Daddy Pollitt. The family lives on a Southern plantation in Mississippi in the mid-1950s. The plot revolves around the two main characters, Brick Pollitt and his wife, Margaret, informally called Maggie. Maggie is the play's namesake, which is attributed to her high spirits and perseverance. The play opens in Brick and Maggie's bedroom, which also serves as a sitting room in the Pollitt plantation. Maggie enters the room in a huff because she needs to change her dress, which was soiled by a buttered biscuit thrown by one of Gooper's children. Gooper is Brick's brother and is married to Mae. Gooper and Mae's family includes five children with the sixth on the way. Brick is in the shower and cannot hear Maggie, so he asks her to repeat herself. With increasing agitation, Maggie yells to Brick once more and calls Gooper and Mae's children little no-neck monsters. Maggie says that she would love to wring the necks of the obnoxious children, if only they had any. To Maggie, the children are fat little heads sitting on fat little bodies with no connection in between. Maggie's mortification at the hands of one of the no-necked monsters turns softens her and she tells Brick that she has seen a gynecologist and is perfectly capable of having children. She says that in fact, today is a perfect day for Maggie to conceive, a fact which does not stir Brick in the slightest. Brick asks Maggie how she intends to conceive a child with a man who does not love her and she admits that that is a situation she will have to resolve.
http://litsum.com/cat-on-a-hot-tin-roof/
Act 2 - As the second act begins, Brick and Maggie are in their bedroom as the rest of the family, Doctor Baugh and Reverend Tooker come in for Big Daddy's birthday party. Reverend Tooker is enumerating the donations left to the church by a wealthy patron who has recently died. Big Daddy bristles at the talk of death, since he has narrowly escaped a diagnosis of cancer.
Big Mama rushes in looking for Brick and chastises him for drinking too much. Big Mama is an overweight, gaudily dressed woman with less than genteel manners. She is an embarrassment to many of the family members, who tolerate her only for her position as the matriarch of the family. Big Mama gives a signal and the household staff members enter, bringing a birthday cake and bottles of champagne......
http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-cathottinroof/chapanal002.html
Act 3 - The family is beginning to wander back into Brick and Maggie's room and wonders to where Big Daddy has disappeared. Big Mama assumes her husband has gone to bed early, being exhausted from such a full day. She mentions that Big Daddy didn't seem like himself during the evening, but he did eat a huge meal like a man with a healthy appetite.
Gooper and Mae comment that they hope Big Daddy does not suffer from all the food. Big Mama doesn't comprehend their meaning and several times Gooper tries to tell his mother what he means, but Mae stops him with a stern look or a poke in the ribs. Big Mama thinks Big Daddy just needs a good night's sleep since the worry of a cancer diagnosis is over.
http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-cathottinroof/chapanal003.html
Characters
Lacey - Male, Black handyman
Sookey - Female, Black maid
Margaret - Female, Young Woman, Brick's wife, the plays "cat"
Brick - Male, Young Man, married to Margaret
Mae - Female, A mean, agitated "monster of fertility" who schemes with her husband Gooper to secure Big Daddy's estate. Mae appears primarily responsible for the burlesques of familial love and devotion that she and the children stage before the grandparents.
Gooper - Male, A successful corporate lawyer. Gooper is Daddy's eldest and least favored son. He deeply resents his parents' love for Brick, viciously relishes in Daddy's illness, and rather ruthlessly plots to secure control of the estate.
Big Mama - Female, Maggie's mother. Fat, breathless, sincere, earnest, crude, and bedecked in flashy gems, Mama is a woman embarrassingly dedicated to a man who despises her and in feeble denial of her husband's disgust. She considers Brick her "only son."
Dixie - Female, Daughter of Mae and Gooper
Buster - Male, Son of Mae and Gooper
Sonny - Male, Son of Mae and Gooper
Trixie - Female, Daughter of Mae and Gooper
Big Daddy - Male, Maggie's father. Affectionately dubbed by Maggie as an old-fashioned "Mississippi redneck," Daddy is a large, brash, and vulgar plantation millionaire who believes he has returned from the grave.
Rev. Tooker - Male, A tactless, opportunistic, and hypocritical guest at Big Daddy's birthday party. As Williams indicates, his role is to embody the lie of conventional morality. Note especially in Act III his off-hand anecdote about the colors of his cheap chasuble fading into each other.
Doctor Baugh - Male, Big Daddy's physician
Daisy - Female, Daughter of Mae and Gooper
Brightie - Female, Daughter of Mae and Gooper
Small - Male, Son of Mae and Gooper
Characters and Casting
Who would I cast in my production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof? Well to begin with there are seventeen characters in the show, nine men and eight women. Also, how would I go about casting non-traditional, if I needed to?
First off, I would cast Robert Devoue as Big Daddy. He has that stern but caring personality that Big Daddy has. Plus, he is a great actor and would be great at this role! Moving along to who would play Big Mama? For Big Mama I would cast Kathy Bates because she is a somewhat big woman, an Academy Award winner and great actress and would be great for this part as Big Mama. As for the lead of the show, Brick, I would cast Ben Stiller. I would cast him because I saw him in House of Blue Leaves and saw the struggle his character was put through and I believe he would do a great job playing Brick. Brick goes through a great deal of assumptions and accusations about being gay and Ben Stiller would do well with that issue. As for the leading lady, Maggie, Bricks wife is a strong woman and I would cast Sandra Bullock as Maggie. After seeing her performance in The Blindside, which won her the Oscar for Best Actress, there is no doubt she would be amazing playing this strong willed woman. Maggie is basically the “cat” on the hot tin roof as she fights to get the love and respect from Big Daddy and deal with the issue of her husband, Brick, might be a homosexual. Moving on to Gooper, I would cast Robert Downey Jr. as him. I would cast Robert because I believe that he could play the douchebag brother who only wants Big Daddy’s enormous wealth. He has that presence of a greedy, money driven, upset man who has six kids and an evil wife. Speaking of evil wives, Mae is Goopers wife and she is down right mean and evil! So who would I cast as this part? I would cast Kate Gosslin as Mae. There is something about the way she looks and gives off the presence of being the perfect Mae, crazy and mean. Moving right along to Lacey and Sookey, the black workers of Big Daddy on the plantation. For Lacey, I would cast Denzel Washington and for Sookey I would cast Michelle Obama. As for Reverend Tooker, I would cast Tim Baker, the t.v. evangelist, because according to the description of the character he is a hypocritical man of the Lord. Moving on to the character of Doctor Baugh, I would cast Laurie Hughes as his character from House. He would be perfect for the role of Big Daddy’s physician because he doesn’t put up anyone and is great at what he does. Finally, who would I cast as the five to six children of Mae and Gooper? I would have an open call audition for the parts of the characters.
For the setting of the show and the fact that we know that everyone is white, except for Lacey and Sookey, I would have to keep casting to traditional casting.
