Tennessee Williams' 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' Comes to USU

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof takes the stage at the Caine Lyric Theatre Oct. 27-30 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 31 at 2 and 7:30 p.m. The production is presented by Utah State University’s Theatre Arts Department.

“This is my first time directing a Tennessee Williams play and he’s one of my three favorite playwrights,” said Richie Call, director of the show and assistant professor of theater in the Caine College of the Arts. “To get an opportunity to work on this play specifically is really exciting to me. It’s fulfilling to work on material that is written so well.”

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is the story of a southern family in crisis, especially Brick and his wife, Maggie (the “cat”). Brick’s family interacts over the course of one evening gathering at the family estate in Mississippi. There is a party to celebrate the birthday of patriarch Big Daddy Pollitt and his return from the Ochsner Clinic with what he has been told is a clean bill of health. All family members (except Big Daddy and his wife, Big Mama) are aware of Big Daddy’s true diagnosis: he is dying of cancer. His family has lied to Big Daddy and his wife to spare them the pain on his birthday, but throughout the course of the play it becomes clear that the Pollitt family has long constructed a web of deceit.

“When I direct a play, I usually reach a point where I feel like it’s as much as I can contribute to the play,” Call said. “When I direct plays like this, I never reach that point because the writing is so good that there is always more that can be done.”

The most rewarding part of directing the play is that we learn more about the characters and play every night we rehearse and more continues to be revealed, Call said.

There is a Tennessee Williams quote that Call loves: “I don’t think a soft, or sentimental ending, can do anything but injury to the play which says only one affirmative thing about ‘Man’s Fate’: that he has it still in his power not to squeal like a pig but to keep a tight mouth about it…and also that love is possible: not proven or disproven, but possible.”

Call believes that’s what the heart of this play is about; love is possible.

When Elia Kazan, director, producer, writer and actor, directed Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, he told the original cast that the form was not enough and they must be full.

“I think that’s what our cast achieves,” Call said. “An emotional fullness that you don’t always see in productions of this show.”

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof shows Oct. 27-Oct. 30 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 31 at 2 and 7:30 p.m. at the Caine Lyric Theatre, 28 W. Center Street in downtown Logan. Tickets are $13 adults, $10 seniors and youth, $8 USU faculty and staff and free for USU students with ID. For more information or tickets, contact the CCA Box Office in room L101 of the Chase Fine Arts Center on USU’s Logan campus, call 435-797-8022, or see the college’s Production Services website.

The production contains adult themes.

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Writer and Contact: Whitney Schulte, 435-797-9203, whitney.schulte@usu.edu