Drama, Fiction, General & Miscellaneous Drama

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Name: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Author: Tennessee Williams
ISBN: 9780811216012

by Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee

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Overview

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof first heated up Broadway in 1955 with its gothic American story of brothers vying for their dying father's inheritance amid a whirlwind of sexuality, untethered in the person of Maggie the Cat. The play also daringly showcased the burden of sexuality repressed in the agony of her husband, Brick Pollitt. In spite of the public controversy Cat stirred up, it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the Drama Critics Circle Award for that year. Williams, as he so often did with his plays, rewrote Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for many years—the present version was originally produced at the American Shakespeare Festival in 1974 with all the changes that made Williams finally declare the text to be definitive, and was most recently produced on Broadway in the 2003-04 season. This definitive edition also includes Williams' essay "Person-to-Person," Williams' notes on the various endings, and a short chronology of the author's life. One of America's greatest living playwrights, as well as a friend and colleague of Williams, Edward Albee has written a concise introduction to the play from a playwright's perspective, examining the candor, sensuality, power, and impact of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof then and now.

Synopsis

The definitive text of this American classic—reissued with an introduction by Edward Albee (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and A Delicate Balance) and Williams' essay "Person-to-Person."

NY Journal-American

...Williams has fashioned his most compelling characters.

About the Author, Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) is the acclaimed author of many books of letters, short stories, poems, essays, and a large collection of plays, including The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Camino Real, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending, The Night of the Iguana, and The Rose Tattoo.

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Editorials

Ken Furtado - Echo Magazine

“The introductions, by playwrights as illustrious as Williams himself, are the gem of these new editions.”

Howard Kissel - The Daily News

“Tennessee Williams never wrote a more explosive play than Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”

The New York Times

“[Cat on a Hot Tin Roof] is [Williams'] most impassioned and articulate statement on human isolation.”

Echo Magazine

The introductions, by playwrights as illustrious as Williams himself, are the gem of these new editions.— Ken Furtado

NY Post

...a play of tremendous dramatic impact...enormous theatrical power.

NY Journal-American

...Williams has fashioned his most compelling characters.

NY Times

This is a gripping and intensely moving play, a play that can hold its own with anything written in the post-O'Neill American theater...Brilliant scenes, scenes of sudden and lashing dramatic power, break open...There is, indeed, no one moment in the evening when the stinging accuracy of Mr. Williams' ear for human speech is not compellingly in evidence...Mr. Williams is the man of our time who comes closest to hurling the actual blood and bone of life onto the stage; he is also the man whose prose comes closest to being an incisive natural poetry.

School Library Journal

Gr 10-Up Topics covered in 10 authoritative essays include: the character of Brick, his friendship with Skipper, his relationship with Maggie, homophobia, the author's unseen characters, Williams's treatment of women, the influence of Spanish author Federico Garc'a Lorca, and comparisons to Williams's other works. All chapters contain examples of dialogue from the play followed by interpretation. The book also has a chronology of the playwright's life and a substantial bibliography. Students studying Williams's work will find a wealth of information here. A great purchase for schools with Cat in the curriculum. -Pat Bender, The Shipley School, Bryn Mawr, PA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.