Photo of the cast of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Suzy Gorman
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof| 08.15 – 08.18.24 | The Grandel, 3610 Grandel Square | All ages | $45-$100 ($25 for students)
“What is the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof? I wish I knew… Just staying on it, I guess as long as she can…” Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)
Since 2016, St. Louis’ annual Tennessee Williams Festival has paid homage to the celebrated playwright through a series of events honoring his contributions to American literature and exploring the influence St. Louis had on his work. Each year’s fest features scholarly panels examining his influence on American theater, walking tours exploring his life in the city, and of course, a production of one of Williams’ plays. Past years have featured some of Williams’ signature plays, The Glass Menagerie (in 2020 and 2021) and A Streetcar Named Desire (in 2018), as well as less widely known works such as Suddenly Last Summer (in 2023), The Rose Tattoo (in 2022), and Night of the Iguana (in 2019). This year’s festival features one of Williams’ most iconic works, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and is the first time the play has been produced for the festival.
Originally premiering on Broadway in 1955, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof went on to become one of Williams’ most acclaimed works, earning him the Pulitzer Prize for Drama the same year. Like many of Williams’ plays, Cat is an intense, simmering drama that grapples with toxic family and romantic relationships. The play is centered around the Pollitts, a wealthy plantation family in the Mississippi Delta, with the events of the narrative taking place over the course of a single evening on the family’s estate.
On the eve of his 65th birthday, the curmudgeonly Pollitt family patriarch, “Big Daddy” (played by Peter Mayer), has returned home from a comprehensive medical exam with the assurance of a “clean bill of health.” His family have assembled for a birthday party to celebrate the apparent good news, including long-suffering matriarch “Big Mama” (Kari Ely); eldest son Gooper (Eric Dean White), his wife Mae (Roxanne Wellington), and their children (played by Kate Kappel, Tatum Wilson, and Cooper Scheessele); and youngest son Brick Pollitt (Brian Slaten), an alcoholic former football star, and his neurotic wife Maggie (Kiah McKirnan ), who frets about her and Brick’s inability to conceive children and how this will affect the couple’s inheritance of the Pollitt family fortune.
Unbeknownst to Big Daddy and Big Mama, Big Daddy has actually received a terminal cancer diagnosis following his medical exam, news that his sons and daughters-in-law plan to reveal after the party. Meanwhile, Gooper and Mae scheme to position Gooper as heir to the Pollitt estate, much to the consternation of Maggie. Over the course of the evening, we see the members of the Pollitt family confront the long-repressed griefs and traumas that have grown to define their dysfunctional family dynamic.
It is not difficult to see why Cat has remained one of Williams’ most produced works, with the play offering incredibly meaty and emotionally dynamic roles. The roles of Maggie, Brick, and Big Daddy are naturally the standouts, with the relationship between Brick, his wife Maggie, and his father defining the first two acts of the play. In the first act, we gradually learn the circumstances behind Brick’s descent into alcoholism, driven in part by Maggie’s desperation to conceive a child with Brick in order to cling to the wealth and privilege afforded her by marrying into the Pollitt family, despite the couple’s lack of intimacy. In the second, we see an extended conversation between Big Daddy and Brick, as Big Daddy reveals his fear of death and concern over the drunken, suicidal apathy Brick has descended into since the death of his former football teammate Skipper (who it is strongly implied Brick harbored romantic feelings for), unaware of the terminal cancer diagnosis his family has concealed from him.
Needless to say, an immensely talented and accomplished ensemble has been recruited for the production, who more than rise to the occasion of tackling this complex, timeless material. Director Michael Wilson has helmed many high-profile Tennessee Williams revivals over the years (including directing Amanda Plummer and James Earl Jones in a revival of Night of the Iguana), and the cast treats the material with both reverence and affection. This is notably seen in the decision to insert Tennessee Williams as a character into the play itself (played with loving pomp by St. Louis Black Repertory veteran J. Samuel Davis), who literally sets the stage by describing Williams’ inspirations for the material and its staging, acting as an occasional fourth wall breaking emcee throughout the production. (Davis also plays the supporting roles of Doctor Baugh and Reverend Tooker in the production.)
This year’s cast includes many of St. Louis’ most accomplished thespians, with résumés including roles in regional and off-Broadway productions; memberships in the St. Louis Rep and the Shakespeare Festival; and notable film and television work. Given their prominent roles in the play’s narrative, particular commendation must naturally be given to McKirnan, whose Maggie is equally conniving, seductive, petty, and sympathetic, and Slaten, who embodies Brick’s utter passivity and helplessness. The physicality of Slaten’s performance as the physically and spiritually wounded Brick, constantly launching himself across the stage in pursuit of a whiskey highball, was especially commendable, his ever-present (literal) crutch being used to especially frightening effect at the climax of the first act. Peter Mayer’s abusive, uproariously vulgar Big Daddy was a clear standout as well, a character whose outward brashness and arrogance is contrasted against his inner fears of having failed his family and his impending death. (Notably, Mayer’s real-life wife Kari Ely plays Big Mama, giving an incredible authenticity to their scenes together.)
Every theater-lover in St. Louis owes it to themselves to see this skillfully and lovingly assembled production, which continues the festival’s commendable work of keeping the legacy of one of our century’s greatest literary heroes (and one of our city’s most colorful former residents) alive. | David Von Nordheim
Performances of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof run nightly at 7:00PM from Thursday, August 15th through Saturday, August 17th, with a 3:00PM afternoon performance on Sunday, August 18th. Tickets can be purchased through Metrotix.
