CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF. To 23 November.
St Andrews
CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF
by Tennessee Wiliams
Byre Theatre To 23 November 2002
7.30pm Mat Sat 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 45min Two intervals
TICKETS 01334 475000
www.byretheatre.com
Review Timothy Ramsden 9 November
A production that grows to be a strong, gripping re-enactment of marital and family hell.Despite its title, and as this latest outing from the Cattery confirms, Williams' play is about male relationships. not just the gay-denial affection of Brick for his dead friend Skipper (whose image emerges from a side-wall panel at the crisis in Ken Alexander's production). But also the father-son longing and lies between millionaire Big Daddy and Brick, his oblivion-through-alcohol destructive favourite son. And it's here the heart of Alexander's initially stilted but eventually thrilling production lies.
It's a long journey through - and into - the night, a spiritual hollow between Brick and his wife, unlit and unwarmed by the fireworks which fitfully whizz and shriek to celebrate Big Daddy's 65th birthday.
In the world of lies, damned lies and human relationships, Brick and Maggie's opening confrontation is a mere skirmish. Anita Vettesse's Maggie shows frustration at her husband's lack of affection but lacks the inner fury that makes her like the pained cat in the title. It's agony by numbers. Ironically, while a huge double bed helps fill the room, it's only when son and father bed down emotionally that passion's rubbed through to its raw edges.
Williams' central characters are, of course, all A-list: they've been played by a series of star actors, each illuminating their role with the force of an exceptional personality. At the Byre, it's clear such a production history still leaves space for a different, non-star approach to strike fire from the script.
A star performance would give Big Daddy epic resonances. Gareth Thomas is a strong company man, and here he gives the best I've seen him do. He might not be a Lear, or offset his tigrish qualities with vulnerability or apparent ease. But he shows bemusement at his immense earned wealth and an awareness of how irrational is his liking for Brick (its secret being that Brick, unlike his self-seeking brother, doesn't give a damn) - tearing at the truth through veneers of comfortable lies just as he clutches his abdomen, pained by the inoperable cancer which has been passed off to him as only a spastioc colon.
Similarly, a great actor might give Brick's inner life more detailed expression. But Richard Conlon captures the character's lost soul, as he stands staring vacantly ahead, separated by distance and direction of attention from Maggie, often in corners always awaiting the 'click' that signifies alcohol's sugared his misery for another session.
Don't take these fantasy-comparisons for criticism. It's more a matter of meditating on the different styles theatre can contain. Who didn't fear taking on Lear after Olivier or Hamlet after Gielgud - except maybe Gielgud and Olivier respectively?
This is, at its heart, a thunderingly good production, well-worth anyone's travelling across Scotland to see.
Margaret: Anita Vettesse
Brick: Richard Conlon
Mae: Janet Dye
Big Mama: Eileen McCallum
Biig Daddy: Gareth Thomas
Reverend Tooker: Stewart McLean
Gooper: John Paul Hurley
Doctor Baugh: Jonathan Battersby
Director: Ken Alexander
Designer: Charles Cusick Smith
Lighting: Simon Wilkinson
Dialect coach: Lynn Bains
2002-11-10 19:09:16