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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

4.07 of 5 stars 4.07 · rating details · 24,355 ratings · 319 reviews

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof first heated up Broadway in 1955 with its gothic American story of brothers vying for their dying father's inheritance amid a whirlwind of sexuality, untethered in the person of Maggie the Cat. The play also daringly showcased the burden of sexuality repressed in the agony of her husband, Brick Pollitt. In spite of the public controversy Cat stirred u...more

Paperback, 208 pages

Published September 17th 2004 by New Directions (first published 1955)

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Dec 16, 2012 Steve aka Sckenda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: drama, family, fathers-and-sons, marriage, southern, movie, pulitzer-prize-author

“All happy families are alike, but an unhappy family is unhappy after its own fashion.” (Leo Tolstoy, "Anna Karenina," 1876)

Living with someone you love in a household of lies can be lonelier than living entirely alone. Lies are the harvest on the 28,000-acre Delta plantation that is the setting of this Tennessee William’s play, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955. Everybody flatters the patriarch, Big Daddy, because he is worth $10 million and dying of cancer without a will. The fam...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Venus added it · review of another edition

Shelves: literature

وقتی بعضی چیزها در خاطراتت و یا در تصوراتت می‌پوسند، قوانین سکوت دیگر کار نمی‌کنند. این درست مثل این است که خانه دارد در آتش می‌سوزد و تو دلت می‌خواهد فراموش کنی که خانه در حال سوختن است. اما نبودن آتش هم تو را نج...ات نمی‌دهد. سکوت دربارۀ یک مسئله فقط آن‌را بزرگ‌تر می‌کند، رشد می‌دهد و همه چیز را می‌پوشاند...!

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May 22, 2009 Lavinia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, plays, in-en

Having seen (and forgotten, as it often happens after a certain age :D) the film many years ago, I sort of knew the plot, but I was nonetheless rewarded with a great deal of domestic drama. I especially enjoyed the first two acts: the confrontation between Maggie and Brick (Act I) with their marriage on the rocks - excellent double meaning btw, (see Brick's alcohol problems) and the confrontation between Big Daddy and Brick (Act II), the climax, which reveals that mendacity is the system that go...more

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Mar 07, 2009 Reza added it · review of another edition

نمایشنامه گربه روی شیروانی داغ :تنسی ویلیامز در سال 1955 نوشته شد که چند فیلم هم از روی اون ساخته شد.
این نمایشنامه در مورد روابط یک خانواده ست که هر کدام از چیزی بزرگ رنج می برند و این درد هیچ وقت به پایان نمی رسد مگر با کنار آمدن با آن.
بریک الکلی ست که به خاطر بهترین دوستش همواره احساس گناه می کند.
مارگارت همسر بریک به خاطر بی توجهی شوهرش در عذاب است.
پدر بزرگ خانواده به علت آگاه شدن از اینکه سرطان دارد در عذاب است.
می و کوپر زن و شوهری هستند که نظارت بر اموال پدر بزرگ را بر عهده داشته اند ولی پدر...more نمایشنامه گربه روی شیروانی داغ :تنسی ویلیامز در سال 1955 نوشته شد که چند فیلم هم از روی اون ساخته شد.
این نمایشنامه در مورد روابط یک خانواده ست که هر کدام از چیزی بزرگ رنج می برند و این درد هیچ وقت به پایان نمی رسد مگر با کنار آمدن با آن.
بریک الکلی ست که به خاطر بهترین دوستش همواره احساس گناه می کند.
مارگارت همسر بریک به خاطر بی توجهی شوهرش در عذاب است.
پدر بزرگ خانواده به علت آگاه شدن از اینکه سرطان دارد در عذاب است.
می و کوپر زن و شوهری هستند که نظارت بر اموال پدر بزرگ را بر عهده داشته اند ولی پدر بزرگ توجهی به آنها ندارد و از این بابت در عذاب می باشند.
تمام نارضایتی این خانواده در سالگرد تولد 65 سالگی پدر بزرگ مانند غده ای چرکی سر باز می کند و همه شروع می کنند به نیش و کنایه زدن به یکدیگر تا شاید از عذابی که دامن گیرشان است رهائی یابند.که در انتها تنها رنج است که پابرجا و قرص همه را احاطه می کند.
این نمایش نگاهی اجمالی ست به زندگی بیشتر ما آدمها که می خواهیم با بارز کردن رنج دیگران از زیر بار عذابی که می کشیم رهایی یابیم و شاید مجبور می شویم که با پوزخندی که شبیه زخمی در قلبمان است از کنار آن با سرتکان دادنی بگذریم.
در این نمایش سکوت نشانه پذیرش رنج است نه غوغا.
تنسی ویلیامز با توجه و توصیف تمام جزئیات در این نمایشنامه سعی در ان دارد که دیگر برداشتها نسبت به اثرش را از بین ببرد و دست هر کسی که بخواهد حرکت و رفتاری را اضافه و کم کند را کوتاه نماید که به نظر من خیلی عاقلانه نیست البته اگر به احساس نویسنده رجوع نکنیم.
این نمایشنامه به نظر من یکی از بهترین هاست.
(less)

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Jun 11, 2008 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have seen the film version of this play with Paul Newmann and Elizabeth Taylor as the main characters and it is truly one of my all time favorites. Of course, this is why I wanted to read the play. Apparently, (as per the editors notes in the book) Williams did approve several different changes in his play for some stage productions and the film production. I will say that I believe I enjoyed reading this play having already seen it as, of course, there is not much more than simple dialouge to...more

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May 03, 2013 Melissa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: play

A southern family gathers to celebrate its patriarch Big Daddy’s birthday. His two sons are as different as can be. The elder, Gooper, is married to a nauseating woman and has five obnoxious kids with another on the way. The younger, Brick, is an alcoholic struggling with a horrible depression. His wife Maggie is beautiful, but is cracking under the strain of trying to hold her marriage together. Their complicated relationship seems irrevocably broken, though we don’t know why at first.

The play...more A southern family gathers to celebrate its patriarch Big Daddy’s birthday. His two sons are as different as can be. The elder, Gooper, is married to a nauseating woman and has five obnoxious kids with another on the way. The younger, Brick, is an alcoholic struggling with a horrible depression. His wife Maggie is beautiful, but is cracking under the strain of trying to hold her marriage together. Their complicated relationship seems irrevocably broken, though we don’t know why at first.

The play won the Pulitzer Prize for its deft portrayal of a family full of secrets. Contempt, greed, adultery, etc. the story is ripe with issues. Williams has a wonderful talented for capturing the fissure in relationships and people’s psyches. Brick is horrible to Maggie, talking to her with utter contempt. His treatment of his wife is a learned behavior. His father, Big Daddy, has treated his own wife with disdain for forty years. In his own words…

“All I ask of that woman is that she leave me alone, but she can’t admit to herself that she makes me sick.”

Maggie the Cat’s loneliness is palpable. I’ve never encountered a character so isolated and trapped in her own life. Her husband Brick is so broken, whether it’s because of his feelings for his dead friend Skipper or his guilt over Skipper’s death or both. We know that Skipper loved Brick, but we don’t know whether Brick felt the same, only that he was so bothered by Skipper’s confession that he hung up on him.

BOTTOM LINE: The play is an enthralling portrait of loneliness. You can't look away.

**The edition I read had two versions of the third act. The first was the ending as Williams originally imagined it. The second was a rewrite that Elia Kazan encouraged Williams to do. Both are interesting, the major change is the absence or presence of Big Daddy.

“Living with someone you love can be lonelier – than living entirely alone! – if the one that y’ love doesn’t love you.”

The 1958 film version makes a few major changes, notably the absence of any reference to homosexuality. It completely leaves out the bits about the former owners of the plantation. It makes Brick and Skipper’s relationship into a dependant friendship, but never touches on the issue of homosexuality. It stars Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor; she is particularly mesmerizing as Maggie.(less)

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Jan 31, 2013 Carole rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2013

Once again, Tennessee Williams dazzles the audience/reader with characters who are so fully developed that one can hardly believe that they are fictional. Big Daddy, Big Mama, Brick and of course, Maggie the Cat all come to life in this wonderful play.

And once again, he does this in a masterful way which I was pleased to see that he himself describes in the stage directions of Act Two: "I'm trying to catch the true quality of experience in a group of people, that cloudy, flickering, evanescent...more

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Jan 02, 2013 Ape rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. It may sound dumb, and this may just be a silly hang up I've yet to get rid of; but I sometimes find myself hesitating over classics - modern or old - worrying that they will be heavy going, certainly worthy, but possibly dull. Some are to be fair. Others are classics because they are just so damn good.

I loved this, the dialogue just sucked me in and I devoured it. What a fantastic story, and something I think most people can relate to in one way or another because it's about that timeless subje...more It may sound dumb, and this may just be a silly hang up I've yet to get rid of; but I sometimes find myself hesitating over classics - modern or old - worrying that they will be heavy going, certainly worthy, but possibly dull. Some are to be fair. Others are classics because they are just so damn good.

I loved this, the dialogue just sucked me in and I devoured it. What a fantastic story, and something I think most people can relate to in one way or another because it's about that timeless subject of families and all the politics that go on in them. Some of the things that were said, and some of the attitudes made me so mad.

The family is gathering for Big Daddy's birthday. He and his wife think he's just had the all clear from a cancer worry, the adult kids know that it's actually bad news. And they're all flocking, with gifts for Big Daddy, Mae and Gooper (the elder son) training their kids to sing and perform for Big Daddy, all in the knowledge that he's a rich man with a lot of land who has yet to write his will. It's this vulturism that makes my flesh crawl. Like the man is already written off and doesn't matter any more - the attitude seems to be he doesn't even need to be told he has cancer; and I prefered the version of act III where he doesn't appear (there were two versions of act III in the copy I have) because I think that really emphasises how irrelevant to their plans and petty arguements and family politics he is. When the older son found out it was cancer, the first thing he did was meet up with his lawyer chum, and write out a preliminary will/agreement, leaving him in control of the family fortune. Once mother's been told, he's straight out waving this document in her face, stating that he wants to protect his interests, he's not a lawyer for nothing etc etc.... absolutely disgusting behaviour.

There's also sibling rivalry, Brick, the younger son and a bit of an alcoholic mess up being Big Daddy's favourite. So there's no love lost between the brothers. And then the children obsession, as Gooper and wife have five kids with another on the way, whereas Brick and his wife currently have none - as if having a hoard of kids makes you more worthy than someone without children?!? And there's Brick's wife, Maggie, the cat on the hot tin roof, who is stuck in a loveless marriage, but trying to hang on and get it to work. There is just so much going on. Such a great story. (less)

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Nov 12, 2011 Paige rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-group, drama

It's been too long since I read a play. There's something so pleasantly dramatic (pardon the pun) and exaggerated about the way the dialogue feels to a solitary reader. I liked these characters (well, at least, the ones I was meant to like) very much and am looking forward to watching the Paul Newman film soon.

I couldn't help thinking that Mr. Williams ought to have written this as a novella rather than a play. His stage directions are very long and detailed and he has a lot of "dramatic philoso...more

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Jul 30, 2011 Kris rated it 4 of 5 stars

The second of a pair of Williams plays I read recently. "Cat" takes place in the bed/sitting room of Brick and Maggie Pollitt in the plantation home of "Big Daddy" Pollitt, Brick's father. Big Daddy is a rich man, owner of a huge plantation; the occasion that takes place in the play is the celebration of Big Daddy's birthday and his (supposed) clean bill of health from recent medical tests. All the family members (except Big Daddy and his wife, Big Mama) know that the medical tests actually came...more

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Jul 19, 2011 Lily Bart rated it 4 of 5 stars

I loved this play as a teenager -- the feverish pace, the soaring poetry of the big speeches, the way Big Daddy was everything my father wasn't and the way Maggie keeps sighing over Brick. But after thirty years of living, I just don't read this play in the same way. There are so many things I swallowed whole as a teen that seem laughably far-fetched as an adult.

Brick is a thirty year old man. Not a fifteen year old boy. Yet he still doesn't know if he's gay or straight? I mean, come on! His se...more I loved this play as a teenager -- the feverish pace, the soaring poetry of the big speeches, the way Big Daddy was everything my father wasn't and the way Maggie keeps sighing over Brick. But after thirty years of living, I just don't read this play in the same way. There are so many things I swallowed whole as a teen that seem laughably far-fetched as an adult.

Brick is a thirty year old man. Not a fifteen year old boy. Yet he still doesn't know if he's gay or straight? I mean, come on! His self-doubt resonated with me as a teen, but now it just seems silly. A real gay man -- if he were gay -- would have done a lot more than just shake hands with Skipper every night. And a real straight man -- especially a gorgeous football star from a very wealthy family -- would have had lots, and lots, and lots of women besides Maggie The Cat!

Maggie is just as unreal as Brick. Sexual attraction is all very well, but at some point wouldn't she notice that Brick is weak-willed, irresponsible, cowardly, and selfish? She keeps saying that she'll "die" if he doesn't make love to her again. She never praises any of his personality traits, just his phenomenal good looks. How many marriages are really like this? Even when she admits he's weak, she goes into a big speech about "you weak, beautiful people" like Brick's spineless alcholic need to leech off everyone else is incredibly poignant and sweet. Where is this woman from???

What you really have here is a gay man pining over an unobtainable fantasy, not a real woman trying to create a working marriage with a real man. Maggie fixates on all the most unreal things -- Brick's phenomenal beauty (which magically gets even more irresistable once he becomes a hopeless drunk) his childlike helplessness, his inability to protect himself, his parents or his wife . . . all things that would send a real-life woman running for the hills.

Notice that it's the "evil" characters, Mae and Gooper, who have the concerns real married people actually have, i.e. raising their children, obtaining financial security, putting down roots.

In what universe are these the bad guys?(less)

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Jun 15, 2011 Don S. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: realistic-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 25, 2010 Katsumi rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: never-again

If there is a problem in a marriage it is right here" big mamma says while pointing at a bed. That is just what this play is about; a problemd marriage between a drunken husband and a wife despertly seeking his love.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof involves a lot of screaming, airy Southern talking, and weak and useless characters. I couldn't find a point in the play, and there is no moral to speak of unless it aims to convert a moneybag grubber into a Christian saint. The pages just keep going on and on...more

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Apr 14, 2010 Barner rated it 3 of 5 stars

My book group discussed this play yesterday afternoon. I read the play, both endings and then viewed the film with Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Neumann. When the play was originally produced on Broadway, the director Elia Kazan asked Williams to rewrite the ending so that Big Daddy would appear in the last act. A good friend of mine thinks that the rewritten ending does not permit the characters to reamin true to themselves; I like the second ending and prefer the film version with Big Daddy's line...more

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Nov 21, 2009 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars

I had only seen the movie several times because I worship Paul Newman. Always have and always will. That said, I did not know about the homosexual undertone of the play... because the movie makers chickened out and turned the whole admiration between Brick and Skipper upside down. There is no mention of the 'old bachelors' from whom Big Daddy inherited the plantation. There is no hint at homosexuality in the play, maybe once in an ironic smile of Big Daddy. And in the film Brick actually desires...more

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Mar 31, 2013 S.J. Pettersson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: worn-spines

I cannot honestly understand how anybody can review this amazing play without mentioning Elisabeth Taylor's bullet bra. Come one Brick! Are you gay or what? Sorry, didn't mean to step on any toes. I know TW hated the movie, and for that matter all the Hollywood and most of the NY movie adaptations of his plays, and in most cases with good reason. However much the studios butchered his endings (the worst case being the otherwise wonderful "Night of the Iguana", Cat on Hot Tin Roof is really close...more

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Sep 24, 2012 Alec rated it 4 of 5 stars

Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" captures the familial miseries that occur behind bedroom doors, in the sanctity of our living rooms, and out of the sight of the neighbors. Much like William Inge, Williams' dramas masterfully portray the ugly side of human existence and his scenes contain jarring moments of truth due to their resemblance to our own clandestine disputes. Many readers will relate to Williams' depiction of a dysfunctional family eaten alive by greed and jealously.

One une...more

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Nov 19, 2012 Alex rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reading-through-history, 2012

"Living with someone you love can be lonelier - than living entirely alone!
- Margaret, Act 1

"Life has got to be allowed to continue even after the dream of life is - all - over..."
- Margaret, Act I

So here is Tennessee Williams coming out, with his customary rage and insight. And darkness.

Once again, I'm surprised. This is the most I've seen homosexuality dealt with, so far; EM Forster hinted at it, and there was Oscar Wilde, but it was all innuendo and shadows before. This feels very bold, and I...more

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Mar 13, 2012 Vicky rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: plays, family, zz-american-author, zzz-temp

This was my first exposure to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - I had heard of it, but never seen or read the play until now.

I was impressed with Williams' ability to hit on such serious topics without the overall work seeming preachy and over-serious.

Unlike most plays I've read, the cast list did not include bits of information about the personality of the characters in the play. Instead, Williams disperses the information throughout the body of the play through stage direction. He states late in the p...more

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Aug 19, 2009 Kat rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-to-film, read-in-2009, classics, borrowed-from-library

I read and enjoyed Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, so I figured I might as well read Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as well. I love the film versions of these plays, and it's what made me want to go read the original works on which they're based.

The play takes place over the course of one evening, Big Daddy's 65th birthday celebration. His family gathers at the plantation to celebrate his birthday and his not having cancer (even though he really does, but is initially led to believe otherw...more

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Mar 17, 2009 Eny rated it 5 of 5 stars

There must be a price to pay for honesty. This "cat" says what she wants to say no matter how much this may hurt her family. She admits she's an opportunist and thats how one should live in a postmodern life as this play took place. Money and wealth are tools how she and other characters can survive in the "hot tin roof" and society in larger extant. Pride and prestige are goals the characters aim to shoot at. Lies and flattery are ways to achieve the goals and set all dreams on track. At the en...more

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Jan 16, 2011 Nick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Excellent play - remarkable given the time when it was written, the historical set-up which it had to confront. I liked Maggie (Margaret Pollitt) and Brick - Big Daddy's character, too, rich in emotions, full of colour and substance. I also found that the final text for the stage (directed by Elia Kazan; and which opened at the Morosco Theater on Broadway on March 24, 1955 - with Barbara Bel Geddes playing Maggie, Ben Gazzara playing Brick and Burl Ives as Big Daddy) offers some additional indic...more

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Feb 06, 2013 Connie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: king-kong, challenge, challenge13, challenge2013, classics, southern-lit

Tennessee Williams amazes me with this powerful play. Greed, jealousy, homosexuality, indifference, alcoholism, and desire are all laid bare in one way or another in this play. Maggie the Cat is full of life and is honest if she does come from a poor family and feel that she is walking on a hot tin roof all the time. Some of the other characters in the play may not be as full of life as Maggie, but she is full of life. What she wants most of all is a baby from her husband Brick because she knows...more

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Sep 13, 2011 Jim Leckband rated it 3 of 5 stars

This one came as a letdown for me - I did not think it was as good as the previous Williams plays I've read such as Streetcar. Brick is a tough character to warm too, he is the "honest" soul of the play, but he is as inactive (literally because of his broken ankle and figuratively as well) as Hamlet. This is deliberate, but it does take some of the air out of the drama. In order for the play to be internally consistent with its characters, we can't have Brick all of a sudden jump out of characte...more

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May 24, 2010 P.Sannie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I had to read this for a class and I had never read anything by Tennessee Williams before, nor have I seen any productions/film adaptations of his plays (not that I can think of anyway). However, I really enjoyed Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and trying to imagine Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman as the two main characters was very easy. The dialogue is well-written and flows seamlessly; I loved how Williams writes how the southern accent should sound because it made it so much easier to imagine how it...more

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Feb 13, 2013 Keksisbaby rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: borrowed, read-2013

Wer so eine Familie hat, braucht einfach keine Freunde mehr. Eigentlich hat die Familie sich versammelt um Big Daddys 65. Geburtstag zu feiern, aber da diesem die Diagnose Krebs beschieden wurde und ein baldiges Ableben, stürzen die Aasgeier von Verwandten sich eher auf die Verteilung des enormen Vermögens. Darunter auch Brick und Maggie, deren Ehe mehr als einen Knacks weg hat. Nachdem Maggie Brick mit seinem besten Freund betrogen hat und er durch eine Verletzung dem Profisport den Rücken kehr...more

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Nov 13, 2011 Brandi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Tennessee Williams excelled in capturing the essence of the South in this masterpiece. When I finished reading this play I delighted in reflecting upon it's many great themes: greed, marriage, death, superficiality, and sexuality. I praise Williams for his success in capturing the essence of each character's personality through their dialogue, also authentically capturing the region they inhabit with their accent. For example, we know Brick is a more introverted character by his short replies, w...more

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Feb 14, 2012 Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shocking, vitriolic, frustrating, raw and exhilarating - all these adjectives and more could be used to describe the experience of reading Tennessee Williams' astounding "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof".

I don't think I have ever read such a stark and honest treatise on the human condition. My head has yet to stop spinning, so a more comprehensive review right now is impossible.

---------------

Coming back to review this a few weeks' later, Cat still deserves every bit of my five-star review. Williams has a...more

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Jun 17, 2012 Pearl added it · review of another edition

I saw the play last year and really enjoyed it. I should look in to more of Tennessee William's play other than this one and Streetcar (which I read last year).

"Cat" really is a look in to the "perfect" Southern American family that is of course, every thing but perfect and has many secrets that are threatening to come to light in one evening. But like Streetcar, they do, but everything just goes back to normal and everyone lives in denial, which I guess is what William's purpose in his writing...more

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Apr 26, 2012 Rachel rated it 2 of 5 stars

Before I began to read this I had pretty insufficient knowledge of what it involved, and I wasn’t expecting to love it or anything. Due to that fact, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. In all honestly, it’s great. The play is a short, quick and easy read and yet it deals with some deep human issues.

What really made it enjoyable were the three main characters; Maggie, Brick and Big Daddy. Their relationships and interactions were intriguing and I found myself routing for each of them 100%,...more

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About Tennessee Williams

Thomas Lanier Williams III, better known by the nickname Tennessee Williams, was a major American playwright of the twentieth century who received many of the top theatrical awards for his work. He moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to "Tennessee," the state of his father's birth. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948 and for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof...more Thomas Lanier Williams III, better known by the nickname Tennessee Williams, was a major American playwright of the twentieth century who received many of the top theatrical awards for his work. He moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to "Tennessee," the state of his father's birth. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948 and for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955. In addition, The Glass Menagerie (1945) and The Night of the Iguana (1961) received New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards. His 1952 play The Rose Tattoo (dedicated to his lover, Frank Merlo), received the Tony Award for best play.

Characters in his plays are often seen as representations of his family members. Laura Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie was understood to be modeled on Rose. Some biographers believed that the character of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire is also based on her.

Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie was generally seen to represent Williams' mother, Edwina. Characters such as Tom Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie and Sebastian in Suddenly, Last Summer were understood to represent Williams himself. In addition, he used a lobotomy operation as a motif in Suddenly, Last Summer.

The Pulitzer Prize for Drama was awarded to A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948 and to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955. These two plays were later filmed, with great success, by noted directors Elia Kazan (Streetcar) with whom Williams developed a very close artistic relationship, and Richard Brooks (Cat). Both plays included references to elements of Williams' life such as homosexuality, mental instability, and alcoholism. Although The Flowering Peach by Clifford Odets was the preferred choice of the Pulitzer Prize jury in 1955 and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was at first considered the weakest of the five shortlisted nominees, Joseph Pulitzer Jr., chairman of the Board, had seen Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and thought it worthy of the drama prize. The Board went along with him after considerable discussion.[18]

Williams wrote The Parade, or Approaching the End of a Summer when he was 29 and worked on it sporadically throughout his life. A semi-autobiographical depiction of his 1940 romance with Kip Kiernan in Provincetown, Massachusetts, it was produced for the first time on October 1, 2006 in Provincetown by the Shakespeare on the Cape production company, as part of the First Annual Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival.

Other works by Williams include Camino Real and Sweet Bird of Youth.

His last play went through many drafts as he was trying to reconcile what would be the end of his life.[14] There are many versions of it, but it is referred to as In Masks Outrageous and Austere.(less)

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“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...” — 61 people liked it

“Mendacity is a system that we live in," declares Brick. "Liquor is one way out an'death's the other.” — 40 people liked it

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