First performed in 1955, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and prestigious
winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, is widely regarded as Tennessee
Williams’ finest play. Indeed by many one of the best of the twentieth century.
Telling the story of the
strife of a Mississippi
The play clearly fails to try
to win its audience over with the first fifteen minutes or so, as introduced to
the characters of Brick and Maggie in their stifling (not just for them)
bedroom we are treated to, what is in effect a one person conversation. The maudlin
Maggie rarely provides any humour during her one way conversation with her
unloving husband Brick ‘Did you say something dear?’. This is a scene setter,
albeit a long one, for what is to come. It is also a greater challenge due to
Gale, who as Maggie, has perhaps tried a little to hard on her southern drawl. Maybe to
an expert, it is a perfect representative of the accent. However on stage it
provides quite a challenge on occasions to clearly understand. Despite this
Gale (a highly experienced RSC actor) does present a very fine performance of the unloved wife.
Charles Aitken as Brick, who is rarely off stage, is the opposite of Gale, having that classic American twang
but never awkward to understand at any point. During his opening scene with Maggie he portrays
well the put upon husband, rarely speaking and with his own hidden emotional
feelings. Saying little, where Maggie says all. It is only at that true
retaliation of raised voice that he breaks out the hidden emotions beneath, Aitken
is quite superb throughout. His scene at the start of act two with Big
Daddy is the best of the play and reveals everything about his character.
Playing Big Daddy is Terence Wilton, reading the role, script in hand for the
sick Daragh O’Malley. However the “reading the role” phrase is cruel to use as
he is excellent and rarely do you notice the script at all (except for my innate concern of it becoming alight on the birthday candles!). He clearly has
the most interesting character to play with the best lines of the play
(including the funniest) and also his exchange with Big Mama (Kim Criswell) is raw,
powerful and at times uncomfortable to watch. The best however is indeed with
Aitken, breaking open Brick’s emotions for his late friend Skipper and
contorting nimbly in wrestling with Brick's crutch (while juggling with the script).
When the glass flies, the audience truly feels the heat of the passion.
The
lesser roles are all also excellently played, with Criswell overplayed as Big
Mama but in a very good way. Over the top, loud, and glammed up to the eyeballs. Sean Murray in the slight role of Reverend Tooker is also a delight and delivers
the ‘I think I better slip away at this point’ line with glorious, crowd pleasing humour.
The music, although much
heralded as written by Charles Cave of White Lies is rarely present/audible (perhaps deliberate) except the
impressive introduction. Much more of a delight is the work of Richard Howell on
lighting and Emma Laxton on sound as they provide the gentle sounds and feel of
the Mississippi
Designer Mike Britton, nominated
for his work on this years Royal & Derngate’s A Tale Of Two Cities by the UK Theatre Awards, provides an at first
simple single room set. However through its stark and tremendous whiteness it
provides a superb background for the story to play out to. The centre piece is
clearly the large and stunning chandelier, as Big Daddy says via “a fire sale
in Europe ”. Director James Dacre also uses the
set superbly with clever use of the slatted walls to herald the arriving and
passing characters. It also provides the abiding image from the play of Brick,
back centre stage and back to audience, crutch and glass in hand framed between
the two double height doors, a splendid visual moment.
[rating:4/5]
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof runs at the Royal & Derngate (Royal) until Saturday, 18th October, 2014 then moves to the Royal Exchange Theatre on Thursday, 30th October, 2014.
For further details visit the Royal & Derngate website at http://www.royalandderngate.co.uk/ and the Royal Exchange website at http://www.royalexchange.co.uk/