By Joe Contreras, Latin Life Denver Media

Its Big Daddy’s 67th birthday. Three generations of the Pollitt family have gathered on a hot summer evening on Big Daddy’s Mississippi plantation. They are there not only to celebrate Big Daddy’s birthday but moreover to celebrate his clean bill of health. Big Daddy had been experiencing a serious cancer scare but now that was all behind him. Or was it? The family’s doctor and minister are at the party, but they are not really there to celebrate. Everyone knows the cruel reality of what’s really going on with Big Daddy’s health, except Big Daddy.

Brick, (Adam Hagenbuch) Big Daddy’s favored son, and his wife Margaret (Noelia Antweiler)) are there as well as Big Daddy’s other son, Grouper, (Matthew Bryan Feld) who brought along his five obnoxious kids and his pregnant wife, Mae (Lenne Klingaman), Grouper and Mae, are positioning themselves to gain Big Daddy’s favor for the possible inheritance of part if not all of Big Daddy’s massive estate. After all they have five kids and a sixth on the way that can carry on Big Daddys legacy and poor Maggie can’t even get pregnant.

Maggie knows all too well what’s going on and she too is out to protect her own and Brick’s financial interests in the estate. She compares herself to a “cat on a hot tin roof”. Maggie the cat is restless, defensive, desperate and ready to jump. She is vivacious, a woman most men would desire.

Brick, with drink after drink in hand, could care less about the whole matter. He just wants to escape the reality that he is married to a woman he can’t stand and only married out of obligation. But moreover, Brick continually mourns the loss of his best friend Skipper. Brick and Skipper were both gridiron athletes, playing on the same football team and spent lots of time together. Brick blames Maggie for interfering in their relationship.

The whole matter is much more complex than just losing a close friend. The whole family and especially Big Daddy wonders why Brick is taking it so hard. What was his real relationship with Skipper. Maggie doesn’t hide the fact from Brick that his best friend Skipper had slept with her in an effort to prove his masculinity. When Skipper could not finish the deed, Maggie’s suspicion was only heightened.

Skipper committed suicide shortly after his last phone call with Brick. Skipper had said something to Brick that he didn’t know to handle so Brick hung up the phone on Skipper. Something Brick has not forgiven himself for, so he drinks to cope, to escape that reality. He is looking for that “click in his head” that moment when he has drunk enough alcohol that gives him a state of peace. A blackout state of sorts.

Behind it all, there is something else going on. The smell of mendacity, Big Daddy calls it. Lies and deception fill the air. Big Daddy wants to know why his son drinks so much. Why can’t he get over the loss of his best friend Skipper. It is truly what everyone in family, including Maggie suspect? That there was more than friendship going on.

A huge argument breaks out between Big Daddy and Brick. Big Daddy wants answers, and he wants them now. No more walking on eggshells. Brick responds with his own defensive shouts of all the mendacity going on in the family dynamic. Who is lying to whom and for what reason. A revealing truth is blurted out leaving Big Daddy and the entire audience stunned. But the mendacity doesn’t end there.

‘Cat On A Hot Tin Roof’ is based on the 1955 Broadway Pulitzer Prize winning play by Tennessee Williams. It was Williams’ second Pulitzer. ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ was his first.

If you have seen the 1958 movie starring Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman and Burl Ives you know just how powerful of a piece Cat On A Hot Tin Roof is. It is one of those movies that stick with you for years, like ‘The Wizard of Oz’. Keep in mind that this play was produced in 1955, homosexuality was something that was kept in the closet. The script had to be compromised to fit the motion picture standards of the time. The current play at the DCPA also treats the subject with kid gloves.

The acting in this Denver presentation is brilliant. While the actors may not be of the caliber of the film version or the original Broadway play that featured Ben Gazzara, Burl Ives and Barbara Bel Geddes, they are still vibrant and convincing. Noelia Antweiler is especially impressive in her role of Maggie. She commands the stage whenever she is present.

If you have not had the opportunity to see Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, now is your chance experience a production of raw drama that will keep you glued to the stage.

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams and Directed by Chris Coleman plays the Kilstrom Theatre at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts through November 2, 2025. Running time 2 hours and 50 minutes with two 10-minute intermissions.

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