“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 family has lied to Big Daddy by telling him that the lab results indicate that it is only a spastic colon. The only person who refuses to fawn over Big Daddy is his son, Brick, who has given up the struggle to please, compete, or inherit.*******Warning: The rest of this “review” contains spoilers and is actually closer to a synopsis of a very sad family tale of mendacity. But I feel strongly that this review needs to be structured this way, because few people actually read old plays, and my hope is that the relevant subject matter will motivate others to discover the work of this lyrical American playwright.******Once Brick was a golden athlete, but now, at 27, he does nothing. People still seek Brick's love, like they do Big Daddy’s, even though he doesn’t reciprocate. A favorite of his parents, Brick would easily inherit the estate but for his alcoholism and his failure to procreate. Brick drinks (“taking the short trip to ‘Echo Spring’") until he feels "the mechanical click" that brings peace upon the correct percentage of alcohol in his bloodstream. Yet, on this day, the day after he broke his ankle, Brick is still waiting for the click to come.Maggie, Brick's wife, is a socialite from a poor family, and, as a southerner, is drawn to “the charm of the defeated” in Brick. Yet, she feels like "a cat on a hot tin roof," and announces that she is still in the ring and willing to fight. Unhappy on the hot roof and hurt because Brick has no sexual desire for her, she wants to salvage the marriage, produce children, and secure Brick’s inheritance. Competing for the inheritance are brother Gooper and his wife, Mae, sometimes called "Sister Woman." They already have five children, with another one on the way. Jealous because Brick was the favorite son, they eavesdrop on the fights of Brick and Maggie and report their marital problems to Daddy in order to sabotage Brick’s chance of inheritance.Big Mama is a heavy, clinging presence who clucks over her brood like a hen. Daddy is cruel to mama and ruthlessly insults her because he resents the power she obtained while he was sick, and, on this day, his birthday, he intends to reassert his authority. Mama tells Big Daddy she loves him so much that she even loves his hate and his hardness. "Wouldn't it be funny if it was true," Big Daddy replies. No, only sad. Daddy has been sleeping with Mama for 45 years, and he doesn't even like her– never did. Brick has been an alcoholic ever since his best friend, Skipper, died. Maggie and Skipper once slept together– not because they loved each other but because each wanted to be closer to Brick. Maggie thinks Brick refuses to sleep with her as punishment for her affair with Skipper. Big Daddy demands to know why Brick drinks. Brick shouts, dropping his cool demeanor, “DISGUST!” He drinks to kill his disgust with "Mendacity." Daddy says that he, himself, is no stranger to mendacity: "Pretenses! Ain’t that mendacity? Having to pretend stuff you don’t think or feel or have any idea of?” Daddy has to pretend to love his wife, and Gooper, and to pretend to enjoy church and other social clubs. "I lived with mendacity. Why can't you?"Big Daddy suspects Brick is disappointed with Brick’s own mendacity to himself, because he can’t face the fact about his orientation. Daddy says that he can tolerate a gay son, but Brick is furious at any suggestion of sexual friendship with Skipper. Homosexuality is an anathema to the very culture that crowned Brick with early laurels. Pressed, Brick finally reveals that Skipper called him with a drunken confession one night, and Brick hung up on him– the last time these best friends spoke before Skipper’s death. Daddy says that the disgust that Brick feels with “mendacity” is merely the “guilt for the grave he dug for his friend who faced the truth, and then kicked him in it rather than face the truth.” Brick replies it was Skipper s truth not his. “But you wouldn’t face it with him,” replies Daddy. "Who can face the truth? Can you?” Brick reveals everyone is lying to Big Daddy and that he is, in fact, dying of cancer. Apparently, in the world of these people, there are only two escapes from mendacity-- drink and death.Big Mama, ever the innocent, stumbles in, asking, "Is there something that I don’t know? The rest of the family reveals the truth about the fatal cancer to Big Mama, and they agree to keep it from Big Daddy, who announces that he smells “a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity.... You can smell it. Hell, it smells like death." (Poor Mae doesn’t even know what mendacity is.) Maggie announces that she is pregnant with Brick's child– a whopper of a lie. This makes Big Daddy and Big Mama very happy, but the rest know she is lying. Brick doesn’t bother to respond because be finally feels the click and no longer cares. Maggie hides Brick's "Echo City"(the bottle) and says she will not give it back. The time is right for her to conceive, and she will only give him his drink if he sleeps with her. She promises that, after making love, they can get drunk together. Maggie proclaims her love. "Wouldn’t it be funny if it were true," retorts Brick. These people have put up with mendacity so long, they cannot even recognize the truth. They are already dead. But I’m not sure if they have been slain by the truth or the dishonesty. The dynamics of this family remind me of Don DeLillo’s observation in “White Noise:” “The family is the cradle of the world’s misinformation....The family is strongest where objective reality is most likely to be misinterpreted.”Brick (Paul Newman), seeking "the click" and Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor),seeking a lover.May 21, 2012Here are links to my three reviews of Tennessee Williams’ plays:The Glass Menagerie (1945)http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Antes de que pregunten: no vi la película. Y lo agradezco. Sinceramente, me había hecho una idea de esta obra y al empezar a leerla me di cuenta de que estuve muy equivocada. Insertándola en su contexto puede funcionar como una crítica o un retrato de las familias sureñas de los Estados Unidos de la época (la obra fue estrenada en 1955 y después la adaptaron al cine), pero quitándola de ahí no son más que tres actos en donde un grupo de gente que no se tolera entre sí pasa la mitad del tiempo gritando y sollozando. Apelé a la mezcla entre las dos lecturas que hice… y el resultado tampoco me convenció. Mi calificación sería un 2.5. La historia empieza con Margaret (“Maggie”) quejándose del matrimonio de su cuñado Gooper Pollitt con Mae, ya que ellos tienen muchos hijos (cinco y uno en camino) y ella todavía no pudo concebir ninguno con su esposo Brick Pollitt, ex deportista y actual alcohólico. Ahora bien, además de la insatisfacción sexual de Margaret nos enteramos de que Big Daddy (o simplemente “Abuelo”) está enfermo y, como es dueño de una plantación muy importante en Mississippi, el tema de la herencia será recurrente ¿Demasiada información? Entonces me ahorro las sub-tramas. Lo esencial es que la fiesta de cumpleaños de Big Daddy (por eso están reunidos) funciona como el marco de peleas familiares y diálogos innecesariamente cargados de melodrama. La vida es dura, sí, pero eso no significa que merezca ser plasmada de manera tan burda. Si mi intención hubiera sido invertir mi tiempo en una historia en donde los personajes sólo se quejan del matrimonio y de lo mal que la pasan en la cama, podría haber encendido la televisión y ver la telenovela de la tarde. Para colmo, siempre son los personajes masculinos y se dirigen con muy poca caballerosidad hacia las mujeres a las que ellos mismos les dijeron “sí, acepto”. Ellas, en cambio, son las arrastradas, las que mendigan un poco de atención y de amor. El personaje de Big Mamma es uno de los más patéticos que he cruzado en los libros y lo peor de todo es saber que existen personas así en la vida real. Big Daddy y Brick se comportan como dos misóginos que sostienen un incómodo y extraño diálogo entre padre e hijo en el acto II, sobre todo porque no se me hizo natural que el hombre mayor de la casa hablara con su hijo de asuntos que pertenecen al ámbito de la pareja, por más que el interlocutor fuera un adulto. Para ilustrar un poco a qué me refiero, en un momento le dice (y esto es lo más “suave” que encontré): ¡Uf! En cuanto mamá sale de mi vista, olvido su cara, pero cuando vuelvo a verla, muchacho, entonces la miro y desearía estar en otro sitio. No es mi intención hacer un análisis moral de la obra porque no soy quién para eso pero, sinceramente, la forma en que se tratan temas delicados (el hastío, la mentira, la codicia) me pareció poco profunda, arquetípica y con comentarios como el que cité Williams no hizo más que demostrarme que tenía (o parecía tener) una visión particular de los conflictos familiares que tal vez no está planteada de la mejor manera. Puede que me equivoque, porque si Williams eligió mostrar los problemas con brusquedad y una pizca de absurdo, por algo habrá sido. A medida que la obra avanza, empiezan a aparecer las reflexiones más "filosóficas" y “poéticas", si se quiere, y no terminan de mezclarse con el tono anterior de los personajes. Lo más grave es que ninguno de los giros de la trama me sorprendió, ya que los había adivinado anteriormente. Los instantes en que los personajes se quitan las máscaras, por ende, no me dejaron anonadada. Puedo decir que me resultaron llamativas las acotaciones en los diálogos, que son mucho más extensas que las normales y expresan las emociones de los personajes. Una de las acotaciones detalla la intención del autor en la escena más importante y más tensa de la obra y eso me pareció curioso, aunque poco efectivo. Creo que lo que más me gustó de La gata… fueron las líneas de Margaret (que no es tan protagonista como se la presenta) y que se notaran ciertas alusiones a la propia experiencia de Tennessee Williams (a esto le pongo un límite, porque no me gustan las lecturas biográficas de la ficción). También rescato la escena que mencioné anteriormente, ya que resultó ser la más innovadora y trata un tema interesante. En resumen, La gata… me pareció una obra poco pulida y con demasiado ruido alrededor. Se reduce a una puesta en escena de parejas satisfechas e insatisfechas, fértiles e infértiles, en varios sentidos. Cada personaje tiene una historia detrás que determina su accionar en el presente, pero la forma en que se le da esa información al lector/ espectador es confusa y predecible. Si ese es el estilo de Williams, entonces no puedo elogiarlo porque no me gusta y punto. Me encantaría leer otras obras de este autor para determinar si ese es mi problema. Ya estuve averiguando un poco sobre Un tranvía llamado deseo y ni siquiera me atrae el argumento como para iniciar su lectura inmediatamente, así que tendrá que esperar.
What do You think about Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (2004)?
So much has been said on this play already, I don't think I'll be able to add anything of interest, but here are a few thoughts.Our English teacher made us watch the movie in class when I was in high school, and I found it fantastic. So I went to read on several other Tennessee Williams plays after that, but for an unknown reason, I never got to this one. I finally corrected this.It's quite a different experience to watch the movie and read the play. Both are great, but reading the play adds to much layers to your understanding of the story. I would love now to watch it on stage.I like that in this edition, we have two endings to this play, the original one and the broadway one. I actually like the original one better, but I also understand why changes were made. They are not very different in what actually happens and the play ends at the same place, yet the feeling I got out of these two ends were quite different.Reading this play and the stage direction also gives me a feeling of how hard this play must have been to act (I did a little bit of theatre, but at an amateur level, when I was younger). I now have a new recognition of how good the actors where in the movie (not that it is a surprise).
—Melaslithos
It's no secret that I'm fond of the movie adaptation of Cat on a hot tin roof. I've watched the film several times and it's among my favorite movies ever. Granted, I knew that Tennessee Williams himself had been displeased with the alternations and compromises Richard Brooks had had to make in order to get the movie out... Actually, that was the reason which motivated me to read the play - I wanted to see how much the 1958. film diverges from Williams' original idea.That said, I kinda expected the play to be a maelstrom of emotion, to be full to the brim with tensions of all sorts (if you've watched the movie, you know what I mean ;)), to provide me with all those fabulous showdowns I watch with so much gusto, just in literary form. Unfortunately, the play doesn't make the cut for me. And no, it's not because the movie is sanitized and ends (view spoiler)[on a higher note (hide spoiler)]
—Martina
Beautiful and strong play: The psychological defenses revealed through multiple confrontations to be witnessed by the audience without any social cover. It is my first time to read anything by Tennessee Williams. I like his style, especially the way he uses the talk or actions of minor characters and the sounds in the background in a way similar to the chorus of the Greek theater, commenting on or stressing what is going on. I liked also his lengthy stage directions, which are much more than stage directions, they are in some instances rather a sort of character analysis and a description of the undercurrent that should be felt by the audience; and every time I wondered whether he could have made a novel out of this story !!?? The part I liked most was the stage direction in which he says "The bird that I hope to catch in the net of this play is not the solution of one man's psychological problem. I'm trying to catch the true quality of experience in a group of people, that cloudy, flickering, evanescent--fiercely charged!--interplay of live human beings in the thundercloud of a common crisis. Some mystery should be left in the revelation of character in a play, just as a great deal of mystery is always left in the revelation of character in life, even in one's own character to himself." The author expresses the same idea again in a word at the end of the play [ in the electronic version which I read ]مسرحية جميلة وقوية: الدفاعات النفسية للشخصيات يتم كشفها من خلال مواجهات متعددة وتصبح مكشوفة تماما أمام المتفرجين بدون أي غطاء اجتماعي. هذه أول مرة أقرأ لتينيسي ويليامز. أحببت أسلوبه في الكتابة, خاصة طريقته في استخدام حوار أو تصرفات الشخصيات الثانوية وأيضا الأصوات التي في الخلفية في الأغراض التي كان يستخدم فيها الكورس في المسرح الإغريقي: للتعليق على حدث أو لتأكيد نقطة ما في الأحداث الجارية على المسرح. أحببت أيضا "توجيهاته المسرحية" الطويلة والتي هي في الحقيقة أكثر من مجرد توجيهات مسرحية؛ إذ أنها في بعض الأحيان كانت أقرب إلى تحليل ووصف للشخصيات وللتيارات التحتية التي يجب أن يشعر بها المتفرجون, وكنت في كل مرة أتساءل عما إذا كان يمكنه كتابة هذه القصة على هيئة رواية !!؟؟ أكثر جزء أعجبني كان التوجيه المسرحي الذي يقول فيه المؤلف : إن الذي أهدف إليه في هذه المسرحية ليس حل المشكلة النفسية لأحد الأشخاص. إنما أنا أحاول أن أصور الطبيعة الحقيقية لتجربة يمر بها مجموعة من الأشخاص, ذلك التفاعل الضبابي المرتعش المتحول, والمشحون لأقصى درجة, بين هؤلاء الأشخاص الأحياء وهم في قبضة العاصفة الرعدية لأزمتهم المشتركة. ويجب أن يكون هناك بعض الغموض في كشف حقيقة الشخصيات في المسرحية, كما هو الحال في الحياة الحقيقية التي فيها دائما قدر كبير من الغموض في كشف الشخصيات, حتى في محاولة كشف الشخص لذاته"
—Mounir
