To close our wonderfully successful anniversary year, we present Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof.
The story is about an affluent Southerner, Big Daddy Pollitt, who is dying of cancer. The family gathers at the Mississippi mansion for his birthday, aware that it may be his last. Big Daddy does not know his prognosis, however, because the family doctor, eldest son Gooper and his wife, Mae, decide to keep the fact concealed from him. Two other family members join the clan for the party: Brick, the youngest Pollitt, and his beautiful wife, Maggie (“The Cat”). Gooper and Brick are the only heirs to Big Daddy’s enormous estate, and Gooper is well aware that Brick is the favorite son.
In an effort to win Big Daddy over, Gooper and Mae make a display of themselves and their children, hoping the patriarch will notice that they will provide heirs for the estate. They are out to discredit Brick and Maggie, who do not have children. Brick drinks heavily and is filled with remorse and guilt over the suicide of his best friend, Skipper, whom he idolized. |
