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01 February 2007

ACT's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

I been thinking of something like this for a long time. I feel if we want to grow as artists within our community we must hear some (hopefully) constructive criticism. I even posted about it in my last MySpace journal. I'm glad you've made it happen. I just hope we can use it to grow and not bicker about one another. Hopefully I'll have a lot to say. With that said here is my journal I wrote about Cat On A Hot Tin Roof:

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof
Asheville Community Theatre
Jan. 17 2006

Let me preface this by saying that I saw this show on "Friends and Family" night, which basically translates to the second dress rehearsal, so I must say that what I saw wasn't a finalized production, which might account for the fact that what I did see was rather underwhelming.
The first act, which was probably at least 30 min shorter than the second, really dragged. It didn't help that the two people onstage the whole time seemed to be in different plays. Maggie (The Cat) played by Melissa Menard seemed to be stuck in some neo-Victorian melodrama, where her character felt compelled to direct her monstrous monologues not towards her unsympathetic husband Brick, but towards the larger, more uncaring audience. Brick on the other hand, played by Dan Clancy, seemed stuck in some early Pinter Absurdist play where the character only speaks in mumbled grunts, and short sentences embellished with some kind of hybrid Deep South meets Brooklyn accent.(Something most of the cast seemed to struggle with) These are both fine actors whom I've see put on notable performances in other shows, but here I felt they just never connected on any level. They never engaged one another. I never saw any clear intentions. If Maggie wanted to get Brick in bed, or make him jealous I never saw her follow through with those motivations. Similarly if Brick wanted Maggie to leave, I never saw anything that would provoke her to do so. I would have liked to have seen more danger from both actors. Maggie needed to be more seductive, and I think Brick needed to be more volatile. The blocking never really helped much either. How many times in real life do people just stand in the middle of their rooms and soliloquize. The shame is that there was so much beautiful furniture in the room, and it seemed like the actors weren’t allowed to sit on it, like it was in some museum or something.
The only actor that really seemed to take a chance was Charles Bell who played Big Daddy. He brought an energy to the stage that no other actor could match or even seem to keep up with. This was the only character living on the edge, the only one who you weren't sure what he was going to do next, and honestly the only interesting one in this whole production. His characterization never faltered, his mannerisms were suited to the character, and he was the only character that made me feel something. At one moment I wanted to pat him on the back the next I wanted to punch him in the gut. The others I never really cared about. Most of them were regulated to set decoration and furthering plot points. Gregory Dickens who played Gooper did manage to come alive a little when he was giving his betrayed speech to Big Mama, but most of the time he just seemed to blend into the background. Cary Nichols, who has a commanding stage presence, never seemed to be able to embody Big Mama with any bigger emotion than a nasally whine. I would have liked to have seen something from her other than a subjugated matriarch.
Lysa Kennedy did an adequate job as Mae mother to five chronically upstaging children, but many of her big moments seemed to have an overly presentational quality about them. Many never seemed to come from a real emotional place or stem from real intentions, they just came out because they had to. I felt as if she was a bit too confined in her character. I felt she wanted to break loose but wasn't allowed to. Although I must say after Charles Bell, she was the only actor that seemed to inhabit the world of the play when not delivering lines, often finding good natural buisness.
Kent Smith did a fine job as Reverend Tooker and probably got the biggest laugh of the night for his hastily exit, but I do wish I'd see more vocal range from him. He tends to often get stuck in the same delivery.
Bob Baldridge also did a fine job with Dr. Braugh, but his onstage time was limited, and other times he was kind of regulated to the outskirts.
Aside from the great language, probably some of the best since Shakespeare, and the wonderful performance by Charles Bell, the only other redeeming thing about this play was the amazing set design by Jack Lindsay and always remarkable technical direction by Adam Cohen. It was a really wonderful set, and the false proscenium really added a lot to the over all stage picture. Unfortunately the lighting, while appropriately warm and moody, was a bit spotty in places, but knowing the limitations of ACT I can look past this deficiency in the production.
Unless this production gets significantly better over the course of its run, I really couldn't say it’s the best thing I’ve seen at ACT. Go see this play to hear Williams's beautiful wordplay, watch Mr. Bell's grand performance, or see a truly beautiful set, but I wouldn't expect anything to be much more striking than those.

~Jason Williams

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

ACT actors deliver intensity, drama in Williams classic
by Tim Reid, take5 correspondent
published January 26, 2007 12:15 am

editor's note-- this review was written for the Asheville Citizen-Times, and has no affiliation with Asheville Performing Arts Reviews. APAR did not recieve permission to reprint this review; it was obtained from the Asheville Citizen-Times website, which we encourage you to visit at the following link:

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770125048

(if that did not work, here is the text of the review)

Asheville Community Theatre plumbs the depths of family conflict and hypocrisy with Tennessee Williams’ intense drama “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”

Charles H. Bell III is unforgettable as “Big Daddy” Pollitt, a Mississippi Delta tycoon whose family gathers to celebrate his 65th birthday and release from the hospital. Beneath all the birthday hoopla they have a serious purpose, to tell Big Daddy and his wife Big Mama (Cary Nichols) that he is dying of cancer.

And family members are already scrambling to get control of Big Daddy’s fortune and his sprawling 28,000-acre plantation.

Oldest son Gooper (Gregory Dickens), an attorney, proclaims that he should head the family empire rather than his brother Brick (Dan Clancy), a former star athlete who now drowns his sorrows in alcohol.

Gooper’s scheming wife Mae (Lysa Kennedy) trots out their five children in a transparent attempt to win Big Daddy’s approval, while constantly pointing out that Brick and his wife remain childless.

Melissa Menard gives a mesmerizing performance as Brick’s sexy wife, Maggie, who writhes like “a cat on a hot tin roof” as she tries to break through Brick’s alcoholic haze of disgust and hate.

Nothing is as it seems. The fog of lies and deceit, or “mendacity” as Brick calls it, hangs heavy over this Mississippi mansion.

Director Leslie Muchmore and a talented cast manage to wrest the full impact of Tennessee Williams’ powerful story. Even if you saw the movie or other productions, this is a show worth catching.

Tim Reid reviews theater for the Citizen-Times.

Jason said...

The review was taken from a entry in my MySpace journal. Here is a comment that my friend Mandy left about the show: (Reprinted with permission)

All right, now that I've actually seen the show, I'm commenting again (but I'll try to keep it brief...).

First thing I thought was, "Wow, the set is BEAUTIFUL." However, as much as I hate to say it, that was pretty much the only thing that kept me interested during the first act. I was annoyed that all of Maggie's speeches were directed out towards the audience. Also, Melissa Menard (I'm still trying to figure out why I know her name, because I'm sure I've never seen her in anything before) had a habit of giving this little "huh" laugh after almost every single line. It got to the point where I started counting how many times she made that noise rather than paying attention to what she was saying. It's a shame, because there's so much more to Maggie's character that never really got explored. Clancy was a bit boring as Brick for the first act, but I thought he picked things up quite a bit in the second act, especially in his scene with Big Daddy. Granted, Menard did a much better job in the second act, as well. I can't really fault either of them too much; Clancy just didn't have that many lines in the first act to work with, and Menard had ALL of the lines, which is never easy.

Charles Bell was absolutely amazing. I was hanging on to every word he said. He did a fantastic job at something I think everyone else in the play failed at: saying the same line differently when it was repeated. It's just the way Williams writes; a character will repeat the exact same sentence three times in a row. Everyone else pretty much fell into a trap of just repeating the line the same way, which made it sound like they forgot what the line was, but Bell was really fantastic at giving new meaning to everything he said. I also thought Cary Nichols did a great job as Big Mama. It wasn't the absolute best acting I've ever seen from her, but considering the fact that she was playing a woman nearly twice her age from a time period long before she was even born, I could understand why. I would have liked to see a little more strength from Big Mama sometimes, but overall, I thought Cary was very convincing. Then again, I'm a big sucker for the matriarchs of all Williams' plays...and I always enjoy seeing Cary perform. I suppose I look up to her a little; she always plays my favorite roles onstage, and she's a really great person to be around offstage.

It was intermission before I even recognized Lysa Kennedy, and that was just because I took a closer look at her bio. I thought she was absolutely astounding as Nurse Rachet in Cuckoo, and I was a tad disappointed with her as Mae. I don't think it's any real fault with her acting ability; she's a stellar actress. I just don't think Mae was really the right sort of part for her.

Smith, Baldridge, and Dickens were all fine. I don't have any comments one way or the other about them, really, other than Smith reminded me a little of Father Mulcachy from M*A*S*H.

...wow, so much for me keeping my comments short, huh. Overall, I really did enjoy the play, once the second act got started. ACT always has fantastic productions for a community theatre.

Anonymous said...

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, currently being performed at the ACT, is being billed as a “classic”. I’m not sure exactly what that means. Is it a classic because its title is recognizable to most theatergoers? Is it a classic because it was written by one of our country’s greatest 20th Century playwrights?
Whether it’s a classic or not, it’s as open to critical analysis as any other play.
And in this case, I’d like to add my own analysis in an effort to bring perspective to the comments made recently by Jason Williams.
The play was first produced in 1955 after Tennessee Williams struggled through many rewrites. This means it was being written even earlier than 1955 in an era starkly different from our own. It was an era where homosexuality was a taboo, the result being that it wasn’t discussed. Not ever. Period.
The problem was that there were many people who were homosexual in those days. Tennessee Willliams was one of them. Only he was forbidden to speak of it honestly in his plays. The unfortunate result, particularly in CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF
Is that the subject is hinted at but never confronted. What was the nature of Brick’s friendship with Skipper? Did they merely shake hands across twin beds as Brick suggests? If so (and it sounds ludicrous to 21st Century ears), why doesn’t Brick sleep with Maggie, especially when she wants him so much, to say nothing of impregnating her which would pave the way for Brick to inherit his vast family fortune? Brick tells Big Daddy he drinks because of all the “mendacity” he encounters in the world. Big Daddy replies that if Brick has to use a word like “mendacity”, he isn’t telling it like it is. He’s just beating around the bush.
This is exactly where the play takes us. (Although to be fair to Tennessee Williams, he was forced to fall back on “mendacity” because of the censorship of his day.) Despite its compelling characters and rich language, the play is incomplete. It doesn’t tell the whole truth.
I agree with Jason William’s review of ACT’s production. To succeed, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF needs forceful and well thought out direction. It also needs actors who understand that the message of the play is muddled and muffled but can somehow transcend this. It’s a difficult, if not nearly impossible task, one that has been accomplished by only the greatest theatrical talents.

Jason said...

I would like to do a bit of a update to my review. Last Friday ACT asked me to run the light board for Cat, since the board operator was sick. This gave me a chance that most reviewers rarely have and that is to see a show a second time. I was primarily interested in how much the show had grown over the last two weeks. I have to say that it grew a lot. It was by no means stellar, but it was quite better than the first time I saw it. Charles Bell was still as powerful as Dig Daddy, and all of the other actors had grown more comfortable, I think in their roles. Dan who played Brick, had toned down, or dropped the Southern Accent that was giving him such a hard time in the previews, which was fine, everyone knows the play takes place in the South so I don't think it's absolutely necessary for everyone to have a Southern accent, especially when it hinders the actor. By loosing the accent I think it allowed Dan to be more comfortable exploring the character. All the actors had found new business and were generally more in the moment.
With that said there still were some problems. I still felt that Maggie and Brick never really connected. I know that's half the point of the story, but even when you try your best to ignore somebody, you still know they're there. I think both characters intentions could have been explored further. Cary Nichols playing Big Mama a bit more dimensionality in her character, but I would have liked to see more from her, especially when she gets angry with her daughter-in-laws. She may not be as forceful as big Daddy but she still knows when to crack a whip. In addition there was still no one who could match Mr. Bell's intensity on-stage. Granted this might be a almost impossible since the character himself is so large and dominating, but had the rest of the cast ever been able to match his intensity it could have been a powerful show.
In my personal opinion 90% of what was wrong with this show was directorial choices. For example, having Maggie deliver her monologues out to the audience never worked for this show. It always seemed like she was talking out into space. The first scene still dragged. A lot of the blocking seemed arbitrary and forced, and the fight scenes seemed too hesitant. Both Bricks struggle with Big Daddy, and his explosion at Maggie seemed a bit reserved. I know it's dangerous to get out of control on stage, but still there needs to be a lot of intensity and focus to really sell those moments.
I must say the production improved greatly over the it's run, however I still think there was further it needed to go.

Anonymous said...

Interesting to know.