Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Tennessee Williams

Introduction
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is set on a wealthy plantation in Mississippi. Brick and Margaret are in a stagnant

marriage. He drinks to rid himself of his guilt over the suicide of his friend, Skipper, refusing to confront

the reality of Skipper’s homosexuality and possibly his own. Plantation owner, Big Daddy, is dying of

cancer and the play centres on the family disputes arising from the inheritance.

It was written by Tennessee Williams in 1955 and first performed on Broadway at the Morosco Theatre in

the same year, directed by Elia Kazan. Kazan requested a few changes be made to the development of the

central characters, most notably asking for the more sympathetic characterisation of Margaret, meaning

that there are two versions of the final act of the play. This performance ran for nearly 700 shows and

won the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. A 1974 script, revised by Williams, effectively combines the two.

In 1958 a film was made of the play, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman in the lead roles of

Margaret and Brick. The film, though highly acclaimed at the time, is often criticised for diluting the drama

to make it suitable for audiences, for example, it removed the play’s homosexual themes.

Since it was first performed at The New Watergate Club in 1958, a performance directed by Peter Hall, it

saw few major revivals in London, or indeed regionally, over the next forty years. However, recently there

have been three large-scale revivals by the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2012, Northern Stage in 2014 and

Theatr Clwyd in 2016.

It is widely thought to be one of Williams’ finest works and was apparently his personal favourite. As

with many of Williams’ plays, he borrows from his own life. Mississippi, in the south of America, is where

Williams grew up. His father struggled with the alcohol problems that we see manifested in Brick in the

play and his mother suffered an unhappy marriage, such as that experienced by Big Daddy and Big

Mama. His mother showered affection on young Williams, who was a weak child after suffering from

diphtheria. This echoes the relationship between Big Mama and Brick and the overwhelming love she

shows for him. Williams himself struggled with his homosexuality in his early years – a battle that Brick is

seemingly undergoing in this play. However, this play is not intended to singularly explore the personal

struggle of Brick, as Williams explains in Act Two during the confrontation between Big Daddy and Brick:

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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.

Structure
Though there are three acts in the play, its events happen in ‘real time’, through a single afternoon,

into the evening. There is no time lapse between scenes and each one begins where the previous one

finished. Students should consider how the structure of the play adds pace and a sense of continually

rising tension.

The Main Characters

Margaret
Margaret, or Maggie, is Brick’s wife and the title character of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. She is lonely and

dissatisfied with her life. She and her husband, Brick, have not slept together for a long time; despite her

best efforts. There are many suggestions in the play that he is homosexual, and we soon discover that she

had a short relationship with his best friend, Skipper, out of their mutual adoration for Brick. Margaret

wants more than anything to have a child and she refuses to give up on her husband.

Margaret is first described as ‘a pretty young woman, with anxious lines in her face.’ Students might like to

pay careful attention to her vocal qualities, as Williams is so specific in how he describes her speech:

She has the vocal tricks of a priest delivering a liturgical chant […] Her voice has range, and music.

Sometimes it drops low as a boy’s and you have a sudden image of her playing boys’ games as a child.

In Williams’ ‘Note of Explanation’, (found in the Penguin Classics edition of the text, 2001) he describes

how he found himself sympathising with the character more and more and finding her ‘charming’. This

fondness for the character is clear throughout – in the stage directions near the start of Act One he defends

her ‘bitchy’ characteristics as a by-product of the constant rejection she experiences from Brick. Students

should experiment with how to show the pride, resilience and humour of this character combined with

the enormous strain that threatens to break her.

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Brick

Brick is a brick of a man. Stubborn, resilient, showing very little emotion at all, he drinks to numb the

pain he feels and to avoid confronting reality. He is Margaret’s husband, but is often indifferent towards

her and sometimes openly aggressive. He is a former athlete and is described by Williams as being ‘slim

and firm as a boy’ (near the start of Act One). He has never really grown up or had what his family deems

to be a proper job, going from college, to playing professional football and then sports commentating.

Brick himself seems unsure about whether or not he is homosexual, but he harbours a deep and lasting

affection for his dead friend, Skipper, and feels an enormous sense of responsibility for his suicide.

His vocal tone towards Margaret at the start is described as being ‘of politely feigned interest, masking

indifference, or worse’. Students have much to explore in their relationship, not least the details of the

‘agreement’, referred to but never explicitly revealed in Act One, which dictates they have no sexual

relationship.

Students might like to explore the physical journey the character goes on over the course of the play, as

he descends into an increasing state of drunkenness. He very rarely shows emotion:

He has the additional charm of the cool air that people have who have given up the struggle. But now and

then, when disturbed, something flashes behind it, like lightening in a fair sky. (Stage directions, near the

start of Act One.)

The students could explore the subtext beneath Brick’s tough and level exterior, the pain and anguish

that lies beneath the veneer and forces him to drink until he finds the ‘click’ that brings him peace. They

could look at how to play the flashes of a rawer emotion, particularly during his conversation with Big

Daddy in Act Two, which gives away the true depth of his anxieties.

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Mae

Mae is Brick’s sister-in-law and the wife of his brother, Gooper. The pair are presented as greedy and

money-grabbing, interested primarily in the inheritance that might be owed to them following the death

of Big Daddy. They have five children and a sixth on the way. She is painted as very socially conscious – in

Act Two she looks on disapprovingly at her mother-in-law’s behaviour, ‘the sort of behaviour which Mae

thinks may account for their failure to get in with the smartest young married set in Memphis.’

She is in many ways the antithesis of Margaret, in that Margaret is unable to have children and Mae is

in Big Daddy’s words, ‘a good breeder’. Yet it is Big Daddy in Act Two who also recognises the similarities

between the two, who are both ‘nervous as cats’. Students could explore the vocal and physical contrasts

and elements of connection between the vivacious Margaret and the breeder, Mae.

Gooper

Gooper is Brick’s brother, Mae’s husband and a lawyer. We discover that he is eight years Brick’s senior and

the less popular of the two brothers. His relationship with his parents is more forced and strained and he

can only look on at their continual displays of affection towards Brick, which Brick never reciprocates. In

Act Three, his true intent is revealed – he has drawn up extensive plans of how to manage the huge estate

after the death of his father. Though despite this, he is not demonised by Williams – it is not surprising

that he recognises the inability of Brick to inherit the role as Patriarch in his current drunken state.

Big Daddy

Big Daddy is the father of Gooper and Brick, and husband to Big Mama. He is easily the most powerful

character in the play, despite the fact that he is dying of cancer. He is loved, admired and revered by the

members of his family – affections that he rarely reciprocates, except to Brick of whom he is most fond.

He is a true self-made man, as he reveals in Act Two:

I quit school at ten years old and went to work like a nigger in the fields. And I rose to be overseer of the

Straw and Ochello plantation and old Straw died and I was Ochello’s partner and the place got bigger and

bigger!

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He is blunt, foul-mouthed and says exactly as he thinks. Williams describes him on his first entrance at the

start of Act Two as, ‘a tall man with a fierce, anxious look, moving carefully not to betray his weakness even, or

especially, to himself.’ Students might like to explore his physical qualities – he moves slowly, in pain, yet at

the same time, he is in denial and wants to smother any signs of potential weakness.

Big Mama

Big Mama is the mother of Brick and Gooper, and the wife of Big Daddy. She is described in Act One as, ‘A

short, stout woman; her sixty years and 170 pounds have left her somewhat breathless most of the time’. She

is unquestionably devoted to all of her family, perhaps the least complicated of any of the characters in

this way. She is also a powerful character and dominates the room and conversation when she is present.

Williams often refers to her great girth – she first enters in Act One, ‘huffing and puffing like an old bulldog’.

This could provide an opportunity to explore the animalistic qualities of various characters, as a ‘way-in’

to their physicality – Maggie is obviously cat-like, the children referred to as dogs and parrots, but what

about the others?

The relationship between Big Mama and Big Daddy would also be interesting to explore, as it appears to

be so one-sided. At the start of Act Two, Williams tells us:

Big Daddy is famous for his jokes at Big Mama’s expense, and nobody laughs louder at these jokes than

Big Mama herself, though sometimes they’re pretty cruel.

What Big Mama says and does and how she feels might be very different and this contrast could be worth

exploring with your students.

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Issues
Alcoholism

Brick’s alcoholism causes many of the other characters pain. Margaret hates it; Big Mama blames Margaret:

Some single men stop drinkin’ when they git married and others start! Brick never touched liquor before

he-!

However, it is clear that Brick drinks to forget the guilt he feels over the death of his best friend, Skipper.

It is implied that Skipper harboured homosexual feelings for Brick, which he refused to acknowledge.

Skipper drank himself to death, as Brick appears to be doing (most ironic of all is that drink also proved

to be the downfall of Williams himself). The details of this relationship are revealed in the conversation

between Margaret and Brick in Act One and between Big Daddy and his son towards the end of Act Two.

Here, Brick talks about finding his oblivion as like a ‘click’:

It’s just a mechanical thing, something like a – like a – like a –switch clicking off in my head, turning the hot

light off and the cool night on.

But until the end of the play, the click evades Brick, and this adds to the sense of danger and mounting

tension. Students should consider the modern relevance of this theme – alcoholism is still a topical and

important issue that damages lives.

Sex and Fertility

When the play was first written, many critics and some audiences felt it was too sexually explicit, particularly

with how openly it talked about homosexuality. The fact that Brick and Margaret are childless is a huge

cause of concern for many of the characters throughout the play, particularly when it comes to the idea

of who will inherit the estate. The absence of their sexual relationship becomes everyone else’s business.

In Act One, Big Mama interrogates Margaret: ‘Something’s not right! You’re childless and my son drinks!’

It is later revealed that Gooper and Mae have been listening through the wall at night and Big Daddy

confronts Brick on the issue, during their showdown in Act Two.

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Margaret is determined not to give up on Brick. In Act One, she says:

It’s going to revive again, just as sudden as that. I’m confident of it. That’s what I’m keeping myself attractive

for. For the time you see me like other men see me.

At the end of the play, she makes this a reality, lying to the family that she is pregnant and tricking Brick

into going to bed with her by removing his alcohol supply. In this play, fertility is currency and Margaret

knows what she wants. Students could consider how their response to the sexual themes of the play

might differ from audiences in the 1950s.

Homosexuality

There are many suggestions in the play that Brick had homosexual feelings for his best friend, Skipper,

but it is something he continually denies. In Act One, Margaret confronts him on the issue:

I remember when we double dated at college […] Gladys and I were just sort of tagging along as if it was

necessary to chaperone you!

Brick’s alcoholism is due to his guilt over being unable to reciprocate Skipper’s feelings or perhaps accept

the way he felt himself. We discover that after Margaret and Skipper’s brief relationship (a strange attempt

by both parties to get closer to the emotionally aloof Brick) Skipper tried to discuss his feelings with Brick

who refused to acknowledge them. Skipper later drank himself to death.

The theme of homosexuality is integral to the play, due to the very location in which Williams places

the action – the bedroom shared by the original owners of the plantation, Jack Straw and Peter Ochello.

However, it is important that students remember that this was still a taboo subject on the stage in the

1950s. Brick says to his father in Act Two:

‘Don’t you know how people feel about things like that? How, how disgusted they are by things like that?’

The first British audiences of the play in 1958 had to pay to be in a private member’s club. There is a

fascinating article on the repression of the play, available at:

https://bit.ly/2UBRJWy

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Williams describes, in the stage directions in Act Two, why he chose to make Brick’s sexuality deliberately

vague:

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.

It may be useful for students to research the biography of Williams, who struggled with his own sexuality

before coming out as homosexual in the 1930s.

Mendacity

Everyone lies to everyone in this play. They lie to Big Daddy about the extent of his illness, Mae and

Gooper conceal their plans over the future of the plantation, Margaret lies about her pregnancy, and

most toxic of all is the lie that Brick lives with regarding his feelings for Skipper and guilt surrounding the

circumstances of his death. In Act Two, Big Daddy tries to convince Brick that mendacity is just part of life:

Hell I could write a book on it! […] Having for instance to act like I care for Big Mama! – I haven’t been able

to stand that woman for forty years now! Pretend to love that son of a bitch Gooper and his wife Mae and

those five same screechers out there like parrots in a jungle? Jesus! Can’t stand to look at ’em!

Critical response / productions

In the 2016 production at Theatr Clwyd, one review from the Guardian praises ‘the flaming sunset of Janet

Bird’s design’, which gives ‘a panoramic sense of a community living in the great state of Mississippi and

an even greater sense of denial’. The full review can be found at: https://bit.ly/3dMZ8tA

The 2012 production at the West Yorkshire Playhouse used a whirring fan to great effect to give a sense of

the heat, monotony and stagnant air. (A review for this production can be found at: https://bit.ly/2UBFOIv)

The Northern Stage production in 2014 similarly rewemained faithful to the original.

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First steps into the text…

Below are some ideas related to key scenes in the play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. These are intended to inspire

exploration and are in no way prescriptive. Detailed practical approaches to the text can be found in the

Eduqas course book Insert title.

Each element – i.e. acting, directing and designing – can be covered simultaneously in the study and

practical exploration of scenes from the play. This will enable learners to have prepared ideas for all the

elements which will appear in Section A or B of the examination.

Context

The knowledge of the genre, practitioners to apply, as well as social, economic and historical context will

apply to all answers to some degree in the examination. If learners relate them closely to the text, their

relevance is heightened.

The geographical context of this play is important. Learners might want to consider societal expectations

and life for the characters in the Deep South of America in 1955. The Pollitt family are estate owners just

on the brink of the Civil Rights movement in America. Life for them has been privileged and safe. Despite

their social status and financial comforts, the family is discontent and all characters in the play are hiding

from a truth, but during the play the bitter reality is exposed. Williams himself refers to the two worlds

by suggesting ‘The set should be less realistic… I think the wall below the ceiling should dissolve mysteriously

into the air’ (Notes for the Designer). This duplicity of both character and the social environment might be

something learners might want to consider in the creation of their ideas.

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Acting
• Practical exploration of the text will help learners to form their own opinions about the

characters at different stages in the play. For example, it is only through the exposure of the truth

about Big Daddy’s illness that Brick is forced by his father to face the reasons for his drinking. It

is in the scenes between these two characters that he gets closest to the truth than with even his

own wife. P69, Brick: “You told Me! I told you!”.

• The specific rehearsal techniques used by practitioners and theatre companies the learners

are familiar with can be used to explore acting style, subtext and motivation of the characters.

For example, learners might improvise scenes where secrets are kept from other characters or

bad news is broken in various ways to a character. This might help to explore scenes, such as Act

Three (P77-80), when Big Mamma is told the real truth of Big Daddy’s illness.

• Physical and vocal experimentation in the building of a role and relationships can be

influenced by live theatre productions seen during the course. This will help learners to develop

opinions and personal responses to the performance demands of any text, including Cat on a Hot

Tin Roof. The Southern accent and dialect create a pace in conversation and firmly roots the play

in its context. Learners might work to develop this and consider how the emphasis on syllables

and the elongation of vowel sounds adds meaning to the words. Although Brick is limited in his

movement due to his broken ankle, learners might focus on his physical posture and gestures to

convey his thoughts and dilemmas. His crutch is used physically and metaphorically in the play.

How might an actor show this?

• Close text work from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to prepare monologue or duologue technique and

performance skills will give learners the opportunity to use subject specific vocabulary about vocal

and physical performance skills. Familiarity with and use of this vocabulary is expected in the

written responses in the examination. For example, Margaret’s monologue on P5 – learners might

explore Margaret’s resentment towards Gooper and his family through the use of vocal skills.

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• Live theatre productions, seen as part of the course, will provide helpful examples of acting

skills at work, which can be referred to by learners in Section B. These observations also help

learners to make similar or different creative choices throughout their study of the text.

Directing

For the purposes of the examination, directing refers to the work done with actors in terms of movement

and positioning in the space, in rehearsal and in performance.

• Performance style. This might refer to the original style of performance or one that learners

have applied to the text in their own experimentation with it. For example, the action of the scene

might slow down and the actors may move in slow motion during the scene where Big mamma

learns the truth (P78). This might convey how Big mamma sees the news coming but can’t stop it.

The other characters might stand over her, looming, causing her to “gasp” for air.

• Movement and positioning in the performance space. As well as the placement of actors

in relation to one another, this might also cover where they enter and exit the stage and the

characters’ relationship with the audience. There are scenes where intense moments are broken

by the entrance of other characters, e.g. Act Two, Page 69 – A child rushes into the room and grabs a

fistful of firecrackers and runs out again. Learners might consider the purpose of this entrance and

how and from where the child appears.

• Interactions between characters through reaction and response in the space. The pacing

and rhythm of the scene might be considered in conveying this relationship, as well as the reaction

to the arrival of new characters and how they change the dynamic of a scene. For example, P55,

where Big Daddy throws Brick’s crutch away and forces him to answer his questions. The physical

and vocal reactions to each other are intense and learners might experiment with how to build

this intensity through the use of the space and proxemics.

• Rehearsal techniques. These should refer closely to the technique used, its reason and intention,

and the success of its use in achieving the aim. Learners may choose to consider how a director’s

methods can be used to explore the use of the performance space. Learners may speed up or

slow down scenes to help to establish the tempo in a scene.

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• Live theatre productions, seen as part of the course, will provide helpful examples of directing

skills at work, which can be referred to by learners in Section B. These observations also help

learners to make similar or different creative choices throughout their study of the text.

Design

The Design element covers set and props, hair and make-up, costume, lighting and sound. The questions

in the examination will clearly state which skill area(s) are required in the response.

• Production Style. Reference to the original production style and context will inform the learners’

ideas. In some cases, this will be a faithful rendition of the style, their own ideas or a different

style completely. In both cases, justification of this concept in terms of their wider knowledge of

the play, themes, relevance and intended impact upon a contemporary audience are required.

Learners may want to emphasise the Hidden truth -the many places of action hidden from the

audience, by exposing them to the audience, e.g. the Gallery might be visible to the audience at all

times. Learners might consider the best shape of stage to convey this. Williams refers to the style

of set as ‘should be far less realistic than I have implied’ - the walls ‘should dissolve mysteriously into

air’ and the roof should suggest the sky, stars and moon. Learners might want to explore to what

extent they believe the set should be naturalistic and to what extent the set should be symbolic

and stylised. In Section B, the influence of live theatre must be referred to in justification of their

ideas.

• Hair and Make-up. Ideas might include the use of colour and make-up and hair techniques to

convey the period, age and status of the character(s). The use of techniques in the creation of

prostheses and elaborate hair pieces and wigs, body make-up and light reacting colours might be

explored. Learners will need to give reasons for the choices of these ideas and connection to the

given / chosen scene(s) is essential. For example, the contrast between the stylish and glamorous

Margaret and the “mummsy” Mae. In Section B, the influence of live theatre must be referred to

in justification of their ideas.

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• Costume. Reference to the original performance and other productions might provide a starting

point for costume ideas. The techniques a costume designer might use to create character, status,

age and to convey meaning to an audience should be explored. This might be achieved by the

choice of historical period, use of fabric texture, colour, silhouette of the design and the intended

use by the actor in the given / chosen scene(s). Learners might consider how the wealth of the

Pollitt family is shown in their costumes and how the overbearing environment of the Mississippi

Delta acts upon them. In Section B, the influence of live theatre must be referred to in justification

of their ideas.

• Set and props. This refers to the study and discussion of various performance spaces and their

suitability for the text and how other productions have been designed for their chosen space.

The production style, location, mood and atmosphere of the given/chosen scene(s) might be

created through the use of levels, positioning of exits and entrances, the proximity of the set

to the audience, and whether set pieces are fixed or able to be moved automatically or by the

actors. Learners will consider the use of large props to dress the scene, and the colour, period and

significance of these in terms of the scene and in conveying a meaning to the audience. Learners

might choose to consider Williams’ notes for the designer and create a non-realistic space for the

characters but dress it in realistic furniture. Williams states in his notes the need for a big double

bed and what he calls a ‘monumental monstrosity of our times’, a huge Hi-Fi with three speakers, TV

set and Liquor cabinet. This piece of furniture encasing these things is to Williams ‘a very complete

and compact little shrine to virtually all the comforts and illusions behind which we hide.’ Learners

might discuss the importance of the presence of the liquor cabinet, in communicating the play’s

pervading theme of alcoholism. In Section B, the influence of live theatre must be referred to in

justification of their ideas.

• Lighting design. The techniques used by a lighting designer to convey location, mood, atmosphere

and meaning to an audience might include the use of colour, different types of lighting , positioning

of lights and their intensity, use of effects lights, and length of the lighting cue. The use of technology

through projection and animated visual effects are considered part of the creation of this visual

element. The ghosts of the past might be evident in the use of diffused lighting around the edge of

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the stage. Through the play, the lighting state seen through the windows and doors might change

to show ‘a fair summer sky that fades into dusk and night during the course of the play’. Learners may

explore how this might be achieved and what blends of colours and speed of progress this cue

takes. Is this a deliberate intention of Williams? Perhaps it echoes the blackening relationships in

the family, the time running out for Big Daddy and perhaps it establishes the play as being in real

time. Learners might consider that the effects could be deliberately non-naturalistic. As tensions

grow between Big Daddy and Brick in Act Two, we are told that ‘an eerie green glow shows in sky

behind him’, perhaps a further forecast of his impending demise. In Section B, the influence of live

theatre must be referred to in justification of their ideas.

• Sound design. The techniques used by a sound designer to convey location, mood and atmosphere,

change in dynamics and rhythm of a scene, and their impact upon an audience might include the

use of different types of sound, placement of speakers, intensity, length of the cue and changes

between sound states, manipulation of sound through software, and the looping of sound in

performance. Are these sounds naturalistic? Should they be created live or pre-recorded? The

telephone also plays an important role in interrupting the conversation between Brick and his

father in Act Two and adds a sense of urgency and frustration to the conversation. Learners might

consider the importance of this cue as it brings the bad news about Big Daddy. They might choose

to add an effect to it or relay it throughout speakers in the auditorium to establish its importance

and sense of relentless ringing. A clock chimes ‘sweetly’ in Act Two, perhaps reminding us of Big

Daddy’s mortality. At what intensity will this be played? In Section B, the influence of live theatre

must be referred to in justification of their ideas.

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Acknowledgements

Header: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams (Penguin Modern Classics, 2009) / ‘Fair dealing’ of third
party materials is used for criticism and review purposes however if there are omissions or inaccuracies please
inform us so that any necessary corrections can be made resources@wjec.co.uk

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