Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Review by Kate Osterloh, Timber Creek High School

With everyone’s family a little bit dysfunctional, a play all about a dysfunctional family seems a smidge redundant: why watch something on stage you can see at home? Yet somehow, Tennessee William’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is able to step beyond the melodrama of life and offer that spark of hope that only theatre seems able to capture. Cypress Creek High School’s intimate and daring production takes all the risks and lands squarely on its feet with a hugely successful performance.

When the alcoholic son of a wealthy plantation owner returns home with his wife, uncertainty is high on the future and fortune of the couple. With Big Daddy dying and a conniving older brother out for the money, Brick and Maggie must explore their history in order to move the family towards a new beginning.

Madelyn Grubbs, playing unhesitating and audacious Maggie, turns a consistent and emotionally rich performance; her character's history is accessible and her desires are made obvious by her full commitment to the part. Anthony Cobb as Big Daddy provides another stabilizing and complete force, whose voice and self-possession, cleverly combined with profound desperation, ground the story and provide a necessary pillar for the others to play off.

Brian Dowling, Gooper, stands out as deliciously hateful and, at times, poignantly vulnerable. He is focused and inventive without ever being overdone, bringing a strength of mind and clarity of purpose to an otherwise pitiable character. Dowling and Grubbs are to be commended for their generosity as actors, as well as their ability to live in the moment.

With an overtly simplistic set and minimal sound and lighting distractions, the tech fulfills the age-old ambition of sufficiency without overpowering the performances. An ingenious, albeit sometimes confusing, maze of windows and hallways mirrors the tangled storyline, while the laudable stage managers Aaron Garcia and Jaime Frank keep things operating seamlessly in the makeshift backstage area.

With only minor things to be desired, such as greater historic detail among costumes, and more powerfully “high” emotional moments, this show truly shines. Though several characters suffer from a lack of strong choice, and nerves cause lines to be rushed and energy unbalanced, the professionalism of the performers ends the night with triumphant tenderness, tenacity, and tears.

Provoking and intense, this production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof deserves all manner of praise, and will undoubtedly touch audience members who come (even those in the company of their own dysfunctional family) with a new willingness to forgive.

Published in the Backstage Noise Newsletter, 2005