Canterbury Repertory Theatre proudly presents Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the Pulitzer Prize winning play from one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated playwrights, Tennessee Williams, and a sizzling masterpiece of American theatre.
On a single summer evening, the Pollitt family gathers to celebrate the birthday of patriarch and cotton tycoon Big Daddy at the family estate in Mississippi.
On the previous evening, Big Daddy’s son Brick, a former football player, broke his leg while trying to jump hurdles at the school track. Brick, for his part, is too numb with liquor to care much about anything ever since his friend Skipper killed himself. He and Brick were best friends, but his wife Margaret (“Maggie the Cat”) thinks their relationship was a bit more than that.
Maggie feels a particularly urgent need to have a baby and to produce an heir. Big Daddy is dying, although he has not been told this yet, and he does not have a will. Maggie is terribly afraid of being poor, so she wants to make sure that she and Brick have a secure place in Big Daddy’s will. In order to do so, however, she must contend with the equally mercenary intentions of Brick’s older brother Gooper and his wife Mae, who have already produced a significant brood of “no-neck monster” children.
Though obviously fond of Brick, Big Daddy is persistently cruel to his wife Big Mama, who insists that she loves him even though he doesn’t believe her. He is frustrated that she has taken charge of the estate since he became sick. He is dismissive of his older son Gooper and shows little more than contempt for Mae.
As the afternoon fades into evening, the characters play out a perturbing battle of wills, at times funny, always intensely dramatic.
All the while they find themselves caught up in a web of falsehood and deception arising from conflicting motives of desire and repulsion, set before a backdrop of looming mortality and spurious regeneration.
Director Annette Searle and the producers have assembled a cast of top local actors to play these challenging and iconic roles. We invite you to an evening of quality, affordable entertainment that promises to be an unforgettable experience and an opportunity to support Repertory and the Christchurch theatre community