Actors Theatre of San Francisco has opened a gripping insight to the Tennessee Williams masterpiece play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The production displays the troubled interactions of a family on a Southern plantation. The acting is strongly focused, giving a perceptive, unblinking look at decadence and self-destruction.
Brick the invalid is steadfast in his need for his crutch, the alcohol that gives him the "click." His Big Daddy is boisterous and invincible, but when the bad news sinks in he takes it in good humor. Maggie the Cat finally gets her Brick.
The two and one-half hour show maintains an intensely dramatic pace. Brick is an ample vessel for sympathy. Big Daddy shouts and forcefully holds the stage. But Maggie holds the plot together. They both try to take away Brick's crutches.
The actors find the characters
The time setting proceeds from the afternoon to the night on Big Daddy's sixty-fifth birthday. Everybody but he and Big Mama (Hannah Marks loud and flowery) knows he is dying of cancer. Christian Phillips presents Big Daddy as a dominant, leering lout with his hand down his crotch. The object of his ogling is his beautiful daughter-in-law Margaret Pollitt, Brick's wife played with a strong sense of sexuality by Jennifer Welch.
Slender Welch is an obvious target of lust for Big Daddy, so it's puzzling why Maggie has not been able to get Brick in her bed for five years. Nicholas Russell consistently and thoroughly holds his conception of Brick as morose and self-centered while the talkative, excited Maggie tries to get his attention. When she taunts him about his dead friend Skipper, Brick becomes defensive and flippant. Maggie's discontent with her unsatisfied desire is a driving force in the play. But the introduction of Skipper becomes a major shouting point later.
Brick's brother Gooper, a fastidious lawyer (Sean Hallinan) has grandchildren for Big Daddy. Maggie and Brick are young, vital and barren. Welch portrays Maggie's nagging with a complex mixture of love, frustration and greed. If she can't produce a grandchild, Brick won't be inheriting the huge plantation. The tightly focused stage space intensifies the pressure for all to see.
Superior staging and acting on a limited budget
The production values of this show are very high with close attention to realism and verisimilitude. This small company regularly pays justice to some of America's best dramatic literature. This Cat claws and dangles, holding on with a desperate fury.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof continues Through September 4 at Actors Theatre of San Francisco, 855 Bush Street. Tickets ($26 to $38) are available online at Actors Theatre and at www.TicketWeb.com or by phone at 415.345.9582.
For more information about the show, please visit Doctor Theater.
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