Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. To 19 November.
Nottingham/Coventry/Edinburgh
CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF
by Tennessee Williams
Nottingham Playhouse to 24th September 2005
7.45pm. Mat Sat 17th 2.30pm, Thurs 22nd 1.30pm
Audio described performances 20th and 21st Sept.
Signed interpreted performance 23rd Sept.
Runs 3hr. Two intervals
Then Belgrade Theatre, Coventry and Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh.
TICKETS: 0131 248 4848
Review: Jen Mitchell 7th September 2005 at Nottingham Playhuose
The grandeur and wealth of the Pollitt plantation are brought to life in Edward Lipscomb's sumptuous set. This Playhouse production, that includes William's original third act, is full of repressed and stifled emotions.
Leslie Harcourt is an excellent Maggie, sultry and sexual, yet desperate to be loved physically and emotionally by her alcoholic husband, Brick (Dugald Bruce-Lockhart). The verbal battle that ensues between the two during the first act ranges from snarling bickering to frustrated sexual advances made from sheer desperation which are almost painful to watch. Maggie's inner hardness and strength is revealed slowly and is borne out of a fear of once again being poor and of losing her husband to his alcoholic oblivion.
Brick darts around the stage, slick with the aid of his crutch but useless physically without it. A man utterly tired of life and all it has given him, he attempts to drink himself into a stupor over the course of the evening and blot out the sound of his wife, and the rest of his family. The only person he responds to even slightly is the larger than life Big Daddy (Aaron Shirley) and the second act, largely taken with the two of them revealing deeply held and disturbing secrets is riveting. Big Daddy's presence fills the stage, not just due to his physical stature but his hold over the lives of the other characters.
Gooper (Rory Murray) and Mae (Candida Gubbins) are a loathsome couple with their transparent greed and ingratiating ways. Gooper unmasks himself entirely when he envisages his inheritance slipping away. It is then the relationship between himself and his father and brother is laid bare.
Big Mama (Christine Absalom) is the pivotal supporting character. A little comic relief in a fraught evening she plays the foolish and giddy role throughout as a cover for a woman trying to pull the strings of her family together. It is in the final act that we see her resolution and vigour as she stops the vultures from circling before her husband's death.
The complex emotions of a family in crisis bubble away throughout but eventually erupt as the secret that has been kept from Big Daddy and Big Mama is revealed.
This highly charged production has achieved what Williams set out to do with this play; catch the true quality of experiences in a group of people, that cloudy, flickering, effervescent fiercely charged! interplay of live human beings in the thundercloud of a common crises.
Maggie: Lesley Harcourt
Brick: Dugald Bruce-Lockhart
Mae: Candida Gubbins
Big Mama: Christine Absalom
Dixie: Elise Davison
Big Daddy: Aaron Shirley
Reverend Tooker: Jamie Chapman
Gooper: Rory Murray
Doctor Baugh: Morgan Deare
Sookey: Yvonne Newman
Children
Red Team: Millie Dearie, Heather Kirk, Bradley McDonnell, Chloe Rodgers, Emily Sanders
Blue Team: Alice Baker, Lucy Baker, Ruby Baker, Katie Eames, Jake Meehan, Katie Taylor
Director: Richard Baron
Designer: Edward Lipscomb
Lighting Designer: Jeanine Davies
Sound Designer: Jon Beales
Voice Coach: Sally Hague
2005-09-12 11:49:29