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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Other Plays
As mirrors of his emotional and imaginative life, the plays of Tennessee Williams explore the darker side of human nature and are haunted by the pervasive theme of loneliness that is humanity's inescapable destiny.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, one of his masterpieces, seethes with the family tensions, suppressed sexuality and the less-than-secret whisper of scandal that lie beneath the civilized veneer of the American South. The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore is a passionate examination of a woman's life as she recounts her memoirs in the face of death. In The Night of the Iguana a group of diverse people are thrown together in an isolated Mexican hotel, all imprisoned in their own way.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, one of his masterpieces, seethes with the family tensions, suppressed sexuality and the less-than-secret whisper of scandal that lie beneath the civilized veneer of the American South. The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore is a passionate examination of a woman's life as she recounts her memoirs in the face of death. In The Night of the Iguana a group of diverse people are thrown together in an isolated Mexican hotel, all imprisoned in their own way.
329 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1955
29 people are currently reading
1024 people want to read
About the author
Tennessee Williams
754 books3,691 followersThomas Lanier Williams III, better known by the nickname Tennessee Williams, was a major American playwright of the twentieth century who received many of the top theatrical awards for his work. He moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to "Tennessee," the state of his father's birth.
Raised in St. Louis, Missouri, after years of obscurity, at age 33 he became famous with the success of The Glass Menagerie (1944) in New York City. This play closely reflected his own unhappy family background. It was the first of a string of successes, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), and The Night of the Iguana (1961). With his later work, he attempted a new style that did not appeal to audiences. His drama A Streetcar Named Desire is often numbered on short lists of the finest American plays of the 20th century, alongside Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
Much of Williams' most acclaimed work has been adapted for the cinema. He also wrote short stories, poetry, essays and a volume of memoirs. In 1979, four years before his death, Williams was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
From Wikipedia
Raised in St. Louis, Missouri, after years of obscurity, at age 33 he became famous with the success of The Glass Menagerie (1944) in New York City. This play closely reflected his own unhappy family background. It was the first of a string of successes, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), and The Night of the Iguana (1961). With his later work, he attempted a new style that did not appeal to audiences. His drama A Streetcar Named Desire is often numbered on short lists of the finest American plays of the 20th century, alongside Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
Much of Williams' most acclaimed work has been adapted for the cinema. He also wrote short stories, poetry, essays and a volume of memoirs. In 1979, four years before his death, Williams was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
From Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
January 5, 2020
The purpose is for the cat to stay on the hot tin roof as long as possible, to cling to it even when it burns, burns, burns ... and the only way to manage that is to engage in a nervous, painful dance of sorts, moving swiftly, each movement relieving the heat for a second before the paws land on the surface again. Moaning sounds escape when the burning sensations reach consciousness again, and again, and again.
Tennessee Williams knows family life better than any other modern playwright I can think of. The burden of belonging without fitting. The pain of loneliness in a crowded, narrow space. The longing and the detachment. The helplessness and the power play. The set pieces and the random aggression.
He also knows society's power to destroy a family. The tragedy of Brick's failure to accept his own sexuality is doubly exposed when it becomes evident that his own prejudice against himself, shaped in the toxic heterosexuality of his athlete environment, is not mirrored in Big Daddy's patriarchal mind. It is the father who pleads with the son to embrace tolerance, not vice versa. But society's impact weighs too strongly on Brick for him to be able to let go of his self-loathing.
Society's call for conventional family life also forces Maggie to take extreme measures to secure her fake marriage by having a child, and it forces the unloved Gooper to trick his way to status and representation by denouncing his own brother's weaknesses and alcoholism.
When Brick suggests to Maggie to just jump off the hot tin roof ("cats can jump"), he misses the point of the structure that destroys them all, himself included. If home is that hot tin roof, then you have to stay.
Who stays last wins.
Tennessee Williams knows family life better than any other modern playwright I can think of. The burden of belonging without fitting. The pain of loneliness in a crowded, narrow space. The longing and the detachment. The helplessness and the power play. The set pieces and the random aggression.
He also knows society's power to destroy a family. The tragedy of Brick's failure to accept his own sexuality is doubly exposed when it becomes evident that his own prejudice against himself, shaped in the toxic heterosexuality of his athlete environment, is not mirrored in Big Daddy's patriarchal mind. It is the father who pleads with the son to embrace tolerance, not vice versa. But society's impact weighs too strongly on Brick for him to be able to let go of his self-loathing.
Society's call for conventional family life also forces Maggie to take extreme measures to secure her fake marriage by having a child, and it forces the unloved Gooper to trick his way to status and representation by denouncing his own brother's weaknesses and alcoholism.
When Brick suggests to Maggie to just jump off the hot tin roof ("cats can jump"), he misses the point of the structure that destroys them all, himself included. If home is that hot tin roof, then you have to stay.
Who stays last wins.
December 16, 2025
Cat on A Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/05/c... winner of The Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955 and the author’s personal favorite
10 out of 10
Tennessee Williams was one of the greatest writers http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/04/a... but I cannot help but say that Thomas Lanier Williams III could have chosen a better name than Tennessee – this is to show how silly or stupid I am, rejecting the name of a whole state, just because they embrace Trump and other such follies over there, and it is the place where my sister and brother-in-law have had some unpleasant and even outright miserable experiences…
Cat on A Hot Tin roof could be best seen with Paul Newman – the lead actor in another stupendous film http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/05/s... based on a play by the same Tennessee Williams and an artist that was not just a phenomenal presence on stage or screen, but also a wonderful human being…William Goldman named only Newman and Clint Eastwood when asked about actors that are not self-obsessed and in search of acclaim – and Elizabeth Taylor in the principal roles
The fact that the play is set in the Mississippi delta would work against it in my case, as stated above, I am prejudiced against red states, I see the embrace of the cult leader Trump as not just objectionable, we reject murder and people like Stalin because ‘it is required by sanity as well as decency’ to quote one of the best minds that I know of, Magician Kingsley Amis http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/12/m... in his The King’s English
Looking on the internet I see that there is a version available there, with Natalie Wood in the main role of Maggie The Cat, the strong, determined, brave, clever, resilient, loving, perseverant, creative, outstanding woman that tries to persuade her husband, Brick, to stop drinking, or at least prevent him from becoming an irredeemable alcoholic, maybe somehow make him have sex with her, so that they have a child or maybe a few children, just as his brother, Gooper, and his souse, Mae, have – they have a sixth on the way.
In the retrograde view of that South (in particular, but seeing the changes they bring to various laws, from abortion to ‘anti- Woke’, we could argue that they live in the past even today) a wife that does not have progenitors is pretty much useless – Big Daddy, the patriarch of the family, who is more or less a benign figure, but with very dark sides, asks his son, Brick, why doesn’t he get rid of Maggie, if they do not get along, as if a woman can be dispend of, if there are no children, and the man is ‘superior’ somehow…
The situation is much more complicated, for Brick seems to be gay –Tennessee Williams was homosexual and "Everything in his life is in his plays, and everything in his plays is in his life’ was said of him – and thus, all the efforts on display would not make Maggie succeed, unless of course, we would conclude that the man is actually bisexual – which he could be, seeing as he married the woman – or remind ourselves that ‘gender is the biggest lie of civilization’ and use a different perspective…
In the Co-Winner of the 2019 Booker Prize Girl, Woman, Other http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/06/g... the author, Bernardine Evaristo explains that gender fluidity is a more accurate view of sexuality, we have Two Spirits, non-gender and this is changing from one minute to the next, and therefore, Brick could have been infatuated with Skipper – or vice versa – but that was a changing landscape, and then there is a chance or more for The Cat.
She is On a Hot Tin Roof and needs to jump, because she is infuriated with the continuous push from Mae and Gooper, who want to inherit the huge property, once Big Daddy is dead, and alas, the old man has cancer, something he does not know, at least for a long time, and seeing as Brick is depressed, addicted to alcohol, the chances seem to be on the side of the family with five, soon to be six children
There are many lies, and a paternal, patriarchal society, Big Daddy has a fit of fury and comes down on his wife and others, saying he is fine and will take over again, they have been leading the show for too long, thinking he is very ill (which he is), but now that the doctor says he just has irritable intestine or something similar, he is back at his place, and wants to push Brick to tell what is wrong, stop drinking and for that he kicks his son around, to have an honest conversation about him and Maggie…
Gooper and Mae have the room next door and they keep spying, telling Big Mama (and then she informs her husband) that she sleeps on the bed and he on the couch and hence, there will be no heirs there, and that is a situation that old fashioned, retrograde Big Daddy cannot tolerate, if Maggie is the cause, why is his son still with her, what is this click he needs to hear in his head, the alcohol has tormented his mind…
Traditions, exaggerations, big fortunes and the greed that is associated with it, addiction, lust, lies, homosexuality, and much more are here in the play, or just hinted at – sexuality was not to be taken head on at that time, when I think gay people, LGBTQ plus and I think these days something else has been added to these acronyms, but I am not sure what and I am too lazy to look it up, for who is taking the effort to read this far has the vitality to find it on the net, if curious – Tennessee Williams was really one of the best http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/01/t...
Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
10 out of 10
Tennessee Williams was one of the greatest writers http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/04/a... but I cannot help but say that Thomas Lanier Williams III could have chosen a better name than Tennessee – this is to show how silly or stupid I am, rejecting the name of a whole state, just because they embrace Trump and other such follies over there, and it is the place where my sister and brother-in-law have had some unpleasant and even outright miserable experiences…
Cat on A Hot Tin roof could be best seen with Paul Newman – the lead actor in another stupendous film http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/05/s... based on a play by the same Tennessee Williams and an artist that was not just a phenomenal presence on stage or screen, but also a wonderful human being…William Goldman named only Newman and Clint Eastwood when asked about actors that are not self-obsessed and in search of acclaim – and Elizabeth Taylor in the principal roles
The fact that the play is set in the Mississippi delta would work against it in my case, as stated above, I am prejudiced against red states, I see the embrace of the cult leader Trump as not just objectionable, we reject murder and people like Stalin because ‘it is required by sanity as well as decency’ to quote one of the best minds that I know of, Magician Kingsley Amis http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/12/m... in his The King’s English
Looking on the internet I see that there is a version available there, with Natalie Wood in the main role of Maggie The Cat, the strong, determined, brave, clever, resilient, loving, perseverant, creative, outstanding woman that tries to persuade her husband, Brick, to stop drinking, or at least prevent him from becoming an irredeemable alcoholic, maybe somehow make him have sex with her, so that they have a child or maybe a few children, just as his brother, Gooper, and his souse, Mae, have – they have a sixth on the way.
In the retrograde view of that South (in particular, but seeing the changes they bring to various laws, from abortion to ‘anti- Woke’, we could argue that they live in the past even today) a wife that does not have progenitors is pretty much useless – Big Daddy, the patriarch of the family, who is more or less a benign figure, but with very dark sides, asks his son, Brick, why doesn’t he get rid of Maggie, if they do not get along, as if a woman can be dispend of, if there are no children, and the man is ‘superior’ somehow…
The situation is much more complicated, for Brick seems to be gay –Tennessee Williams was homosexual and "Everything in his life is in his plays, and everything in his plays is in his life’ was said of him – and thus, all the efforts on display would not make Maggie succeed, unless of course, we would conclude that the man is actually bisexual – which he could be, seeing as he married the woman – or remind ourselves that ‘gender is the biggest lie of civilization’ and use a different perspective…
In the Co-Winner of the 2019 Booker Prize Girl, Woman, Other http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/06/g... the author, Bernardine Evaristo explains that gender fluidity is a more accurate view of sexuality, we have Two Spirits, non-gender and this is changing from one minute to the next, and therefore, Brick could have been infatuated with Skipper – or vice versa – but that was a changing landscape, and then there is a chance or more for The Cat.
She is On a Hot Tin Roof and needs to jump, because she is infuriated with the continuous push from Mae and Gooper, who want to inherit the huge property, once Big Daddy is dead, and alas, the old man has cancer, something he does not know, at least for a long time, and seeing as Brick is depressed, addicted to alcohol, the chances seem to be on the side of the family with five, soon to be six children
There are many lies, and a paternal, patriarchal society, Big Daddy has a fit of fury and comes down on his wife and others, saying he is fine and will take over again, they have been leading the show for too long, thinking he is very ill (which he is), but now that the doctor says he just has irritable intestine or something similar, he is back at his place, and wants to push Brick to tell what is wrong, stop drinking and for that he kicks his son around, to have an honest conversation about him and Maggie…
Gooper and Mae have the room next door and they keep spying, telling Big Mama (and then she informs her husband) that she sleeps on the bed and he on the couch and hence, there will be no heirs there, and that is a situation that old fashioned, retrograde Big Daddy cannot tolerate, if Maggie is the cause, why is his son still with her, what is this click he needs to hear in his head, the alcohol has tormented his mind…
Traditions, exaggerations, big fortunes and the greed that is associated with it, addiction, lust, lies, homosexuality, and much more are here in the play, or just hinted at – sexuality was not to be taken head on at that time, when I think gay people, LGBTQ plus and I think these days something else has been added to these acronyms, but I am not sure what and I am too lazy to look it up, for who is taking the effort to read this far has the vitality to find it on the net, if curious – Tennessee Williams was really one of the best http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/01/t...
Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
April 19, 2019
It was more than I expected. Treatments of avarice, repressed homosexuality, dishonesty, cruelty. I was surprised by the hard hitting nature of the work given the era. Reading through the 20th century Pulitzer drama winners shows how edgy and realistic drama had become with that passing of time.
June 1, 2023
Actually I take it back, streetcar is not the worst play I’ve ever read. This one is.
If there were no Tennessee Williams haters in the world, I’d be dead #shutthefuckup
If there were no Tennessee Williams haters in the world, I’d be dead #shutthefuckup
April 21, 2023
viņš lugas raksta kā dzeju un kā stāstus
absolūti brīnišķigi
cat on a hot tin roof noteikti ir spēcīgākā no šīm trim
absolūti brīnišķigi
cat on a hot tin roof noteikti ir spēcīgākā no šīm trim
December 7, 2025
Tennessee Williams the man you are
August 18, 2022
Een toneelstuk over gezinsdynamiek met 2 verschillende versies. Very interesting indeed.
August 16, 2020
Suppressed homosexuality, greed, avarice, unpleasant characters, drunkenness, family feuding, gossip, self-righteous money-grabbing preacher and horrible children. I am on not sure if there is anything to like in this play, if there is I didn't find it.
May 15, 2016
Extremely heart rending play... The conjugal relationship between Brick and Maggie demonstrates beautifully the unexpected lacunae between hubby and wife... love Williams' plays...
March 8, 2018
read for school
November 21, 2009
What to say about Tennessee Williams?
Firstly, his plays are very dated. Now, I know what you're going to say, "but they're quite old!" But Bertholdt Brecht's plays are older, Oscar Wilde's plays are much older, and they aren't dated; the truth is that there's little that's timeless about Tennessee Williams: his plays were sensationalistic for their time, and have become rooted in their time.
But it gets worse!
In good dramatic writing, characters reveal themselves through their words and their actions.
In primitive drama, plays for children, or bad drama, characters simply stand on stage and proclaim their inner selves, as in, "Hey! I'm suffering from a psychological problem, because of events when I was young! Aaaaarghhhh!"
Oh, but with Tennessee Williams it gets even worse, they don't just proclaim it, they beat it to death in long passages of stilted dialogue. There's something oddly modern about it, actually. The sort of tedious pop-psych self-analysis that passes for conversation among the contemporary bourgeois, he really captures it.
The shame of it is, that in his best plays, he actually creates very good, real, living characters; and then - with a big marker pen - draws a wooden character over the top. Jarring.
I think the fault lies in an 'Art of the Common Man' philosophy of egalitarianism. He overstates his point because he doesn't want anyone to miss it.
An idea that's handled with subtle artistry is like a seed planted in the audience member's mind. Not every mind will receive it; but in those that do, it will grow. An idea that repeatedly and pedantically stated is like a piece of sliced carrot - it's not very tasty, but at least no one will go home saying they didn't get fed.
I have to mention 'Night of the Iguana', because it was so bad. As if realising the flaws in the snooze-inducing dialogue, he includes all sorts of farcical elements - best of all a family of singing and dancing Nazis who contribute nothing to theme or character. If only Oscar Wilde had thought of that!
Firstly, his plays are very dated. Now, I know what you're going to say, "but they're quite old!" But Bertholdt Brecht's plays are older, Oscar Wilde's plays are much older, and they aren't dated; the truth is that there's little that's timeless about Tennessee Williams: his plays were sensationalistic for their time, and have become rooted in their time.
But it gets worse!
In good dramatic writing, characters reveal themselves through their words and their actions.
In primitive drama, plays for children, or bad drama, characters simply stand on stage and proclaim their inner selves, as in, "Hey! I'm suffering from a psychological problem, because of events when I was young! Aaaaarghhhh!"
Oh, but with Tennessee Williams it gets even worse, they don't just proclaim it, they beat it to death in long passages of stilted dialogue. There's something oddly modern about it, actually. The sort of tedious pop-psych self-analysis that passes for conversation among the contemporary bourgeois, he really captures it.
The shame of it is, that in his best plays, he actually creates very good, real, living characters; and then - with a big marker pen - draws a wooden character over the top. Jarring.
I think the fault lies in an 'Art of the Common Man' philosophy of egalitarianism. He overstates his point because he doesn't want anyone to miss it.
An idea that's handled with subtle artistry is like a seed planted in the audience member's mind. Not every mind will receive it; but in those that do, it will grow. An idea that repeatedly and pedantically stated is like a piece of sliced carrot - it's not very tasty, but at least no one will go home saying they didn't get fed.
I have to mention 'Night of the Iguana', because it was so bad. As if realising the flaws in the snooze-inducing dialogue, he includes all sorts of farcical elements - best of all a family of singing and dancing Nazis who contribute nothing to theme or character. If only Oscar Wilde had thought of that!
January 31, 2021
As far as I'm concerned, Tennessee Williams never disappoints. The way he explores the human nature and relationships within a society is intriguing. These investigations of existentialism and how the society shapes relationships, and the way Tennessee describes them, reminds me of both Shakespeare's romantic metaphors and Kafka's Weltschmerz at the same time. I usually write a favourite quote along with the book review, but in this case it is impossible to single out just one. Even though not all of the dramas included in this book have an exciting and dynamic plot, I can assure you that all three are filled with mesmerising quotes. No wonder so many of Tennessee's dramas are adapted to films, which are considered some of the most iconic Hollywood classics.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 5/5
The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore 3/5
The Night of Iguana 4/5
This selection of dramas is described as following:
'As mirrors of his emotional and imaginative life, the plays of Tennessee Williams explore the darker side of human nature and are haunted by the pervasive theme of loneliness that is humanity's inscepable destiny.'
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 5/5
The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore 3/5
The Night of Iguana 4/5
This selection of dramas is described as following:
'As mirrors of his emotional and imaginative life, the plays of Tennessee Williams explore the darker side of human nature and are haunted by the pervasive theme of loneliness that is humanity's inscepable destiny.'
July 23, 2020
Well, that was pretty miserable. Meh. Not much more to say than that.
January 2, 2025
Each of these three plays (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore and The Night Iguana) feels like the slow, painful deterioration of one’s sanity; melting it into a puddle of irreversible delirium. Entrancing, confusing, desperate - as if these plays were written in a state of madness induced by the sweltering heat of Summer in the South. A fever dream.
His artistry transcends mere storytelling, inviting the audience into layered worlds where symbolism, psychological nuance, and existential inquiry converge. His characters are often simultaneously universal archetypes and deeply specific individuals, reflecting his extraordinary capacity to channel both the shared and the singular aspects of the human experience. Each play operates using its own logic and has a clear sense of identity.
My grasp on reality became weaker the further I was sucked into the stories, much like the characters themselves. Each of these plays delves into sexual repression, human suffering and resilience, revealing Williams' preoccupation with themes of desire, mortality, and redemption. His characters are complex, flawed and unique. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was definitely the highlight for me - I thought it was outstanding and quirky in ways that I simply do not have the vocabulary to convey.
Williams’ artistic vision is too brilliant for any of us to cognize. It is this elusiveness that makes his art feel simultaneously profound and intangible, like trying to hold water in your hands.
P.S. The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore because it couldn’t decide where it was going in the first place.
Great title, awful play.
His artistry transcends mere storytelling, inviting the audience into layered worlds where symbolism, psychological nuance, and existential inquiry converge. His characters are often simultaneously universal archetypes and deeply specific individuals, reflecting his extraordinary capacity to channel both the shared and the singular aspects of the human experience. Each play operates using its own logic and has a clear sense of identity.
My grasp on reality became weaker the further I was sucked into the stories, much like the characters themselves. Each of these plays delves into sexual repression, human suffering and resilience, revealing Williams' preoccupation with themes of desire, mortality, and redemption. His characters are complex, flawed and unique. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was definitely the highlight for me - I thought it was outstanding and quirky in ways that I simply do not have the vocabulary to convey.
Williams’ artistic vision is too brilliant for any of us to cognize. It is this elusiveness that makes his art feel simultaneously profound and intangible, like trying to hold water in your hands.
P.S. The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore because it couldn’t decide where it was going in the first place.
Great title, awful play.
April 10, 2019
Cat on a hot tin roof - 4:
I found this play really quite powerful, the characters and their lives and sufferings heartbreaking. In particular, the treatment of Big Mama and Margaret I found most moving. Both their speech and stage directions created rounded characters who felt, who loved, and who hurt. The reader and the audience could not help but feel sympathy for their situations. In terms of the actual plot of the play, I thought it presented well the trials of the family, the difficulties caused by feud, addiction and illness. The worst sides of humanity were shown, motivated both through malice but also human nature.
I felt that the second version of the third act, the version shown on Broadway, was a lot weaker than its original counterpart. I agreed with Tennessee Williams opinions about how the play should end, and feel that the final version was a lot weaker for the changes.
I found this play really quite powerful, the characters and their lives and sufferings heartbreaking. In particular, the treatment of Big Mama and Margaret I found most moving. Both their speech and stage directions created rounded characters who felt, who loved, and who hurt. The reader and the audience could not help but feel sympathy for their situations. In terms of the actual plot of the play, I thought it presented well the trials of the family, the difficulties caused by feud, addiction and illness. The worst sides of humanity were shown, motivated both through malice but also human nature.
I felt that the second version of the third act, the version shown on Broadway, was a lot weaker than its original counterpart. I agreed with Tennessee Williams opinions about how the play should end, and feel that the final version was a lot weaker for the changes.
August 5, 2021
The play was fine but nothing to write home about, although I was consistently intrigued as to how Williams originally saw it and how others perform it as he is so incredibly specific about minute details (such as how people’s voices should sound). I also wonder: if we began with the perspectives of Mae and Gooper as opposed to Margaret and Brick (half of these names are unforgivable) we might feel more sympathetic and aligned with their plight, particularly in act three. If I had to decide, I think I prefer the Broadway version but there didn’t seem to be a great difference. The last point I have to make is one of confusion; the review on the back of the book consistently made me laugh as I progressed through it: “One of the hottest, sultriest plays ever written” - I am sorry, person from the Guardian, but I must inquire about how a play about married couples who hate each other and refuse any kind of intimacy can amass this description? That’s all
May 2, 2025
recap :
cat on a hot tin roof : 4⭐️
the milk train doesn’t stop here anymore : 3⭐️
the night of the iguana : 5 ⭐️
———
nonno’s poem in the night of the iguana :
How calmly does the orange branch
Observe the sky begin to blanch
Without a cry, without a prayer,
With no betrayal of despair.
Sometime while night obscures the tree
The zenith of its life will be
Gone past forever, and from thence
A second history will commence.
A chronicle no longer gold,
A bargaining with mist and mould,
And finally the broken stem
The plummeting to earth; and then
An intercourse not well designed
For beings of a golden kind
Whose native green must arch above
The earth's obscene, corrupting love.
And still the ripe fruit and the branch
Observe the sky begin to blanch
without a cry, without a prayer
With no betrayal of despair,
O Courage, could you not as well
Select a second place to dwell,
Not only in that golden tree
But in the frightened heart of me?
cat on a hot tin roof : 4⭐️
the milk train doesn’t stop here anymore : 3⭐️
the night of the iguana : 5 ⭐️
———
nonno’s poem in the night of the iguana :
How calmly does the orange branch
Observe the sky begin to blanch
Without a cry, without a prayer,
With no betrayal of despair.
Sometime while night obscures the tree
The zenith of its life will be
Gone past forever, and from thence
A second history will commence.
A chronicle no longer gold,
A bargaining with mist and mould,
And finally the broken stem
The plummeting to earth; and then
An intercourse not well designed
For beings of a golden kind
Whose native green must arch above
The earth's obscene, corrupting love.
And still the ripe fruit and the branch
Observe the sky begin to blanch
without a cry, without a prayer
With no betrayal of despair,
O Courage, could you not as well
Select a second place to dwell,
Not only in that golden tree
But in the frightened heart of me?
May 17, 2020
Niet erg subtiel, had het gevoel dat alle emoties en gedachten te lezen waren en daar geen 'laag' onder zat. Het hielp ook niet dat Williams zijn bedoeling bij zijn werk expliciet benoemt in een voorwoord en ook nog eens bij meerdere scènes voorschrijft hoe het decor en de acteurs eruit moeten zien (en zich moeten gedragen) tijdens de performance, daarmee wordt het een kant-en-klaar script . Dat kan er ongetwijfeld voor zorgen dat het toneelstuk heel krachtig is (met de juiste acteurs) maar ik ben in mijn leeservaring meer op zoek naar een multi-interpretabel stuk tekst dat me doet zoeken en mijmeren naar de betekenis. Of me in ieder geval het gevoel geeft dat er nog een eigen interpretatie mogelijk is.
December 22, 2024
cat on a hot tin roof è bellissimo, straordinario - e in questo libro ci sono due finali diversi destinati a due diverse rappresentazioni teatrali, così ci si gode due volte il terzo atto. bellissimo davvero, e io normalmente non amo leggere il teatro. poi c'è the milk train doesn't stop here anymore, bello anche questo - un po' meno. i personaggi sono pochi in entrambi i casi, mentre nel terzo testo, the night of the iguana, c'è un continuo fastidioso andirivieni di personaggi di contorno, macchiette, troppo rumore di fondo. ho fatto una fatica d'inferno a finirlo e forse non ne valeva nemmeno la pena.
January 3, 2025
Technically, I think I had an Act or two left of the play, but I honestly can not find it in myself to finish it. I found it honestly overly complicated, like there is wattpad storytelling, and there is this. I liked the themes, though. Those were good, but the actual writing and some of the characters bored me out of my mind!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 25, 2025
Det finns många aspekter av dessa pjäser som jag ställer mig lite emot, eller som jag ifrågasätter och aldrig kommer fram till ett svar kring. Dock är de otroligt välskrivna och alla karaktärer är otroligt levande. Det känns som att vissa av Williams pjäser mer är undersökningar än färdiga historier.
June 10, 2019
I read just 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' itself. Excellent for understanding the performance by the Sydney Theatre Company I saw recently. Also for understanding the social context and the revisions for the film with Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman and other performances.
February 3, 2019
Characterisation, atmosphere, horrible grasping avarice. What more do you need?
March 30, 2019
Cat: 4.5/5
Milk Train: 3.5/5
Iguana: 4
Milk Train: 3.5/5
Iguana: 4
March 11, 2020
It had its moments.
"Wouldn't it be funny if that was true?"
"Wouldn't it be funny if that was true?"
December 28, 2020
Cat: 4/5 stars
Milk: 2/5 stars
Night: 3/5 stars
Milk: 2/5 stars
Night: 3/5 stars
April 13, 2021
Probably more poignant for its 1950s audience, I enjoyed the play but by no means found it groundbreaking.
June 8, 2021
I have only read Cat on the Hot Tin Roof
July 25, 2022
My rating: 4.5/5
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