The Somerset Valley Players offer this sparingly staged Tennessee Williams masterpiece.
By: Stuart Duncan
You don’t get many opportunities to see Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The Tennessee Williams masterpiece is staged sparingly, especially by community groups, since it demands an extraordinary combination of acting and directing, no longer much in vogue. But the Somerset Valley Players is offering the play at its old, red-schoolhouse setting in the Neshanic section of Hillsborough.
Perhaps we should go back a half century to remind ourselves just how dynamically playwright Williams affected the theater playing field. He tore away the "Boy Meets Girl" comedies of the ’30s and ’40s, wrote pieces that paired misfortune and loneliness with gracefully lyrical speech, all the time wrestling with a repressed culture inherited from Victorian mores.
His plays were eagerly turned into films, even as producers skitishly censored many of his topics, which included cannibalism and homosexuality. He won his first Pulitizer Prize for Drama in 1948 with A Streetcar Named Desire. Seven years later, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof gave him his second. Sadly, in his later years, his skills declined and often he became merely a caricature of his earlier triumphs, but in his prime, he was a giant.
The SVP production comes close, very close, to success. Director Jak Prince has chosen the straight-on approach, shunning tricks, allowing the complex characters to grow from the script itself. He has cut the text sparingly, only the offstage voices of the black servants. The focus of the evening rests squarely on the major characters. Moreover, Williams has written this play closer to the European standards than most; the dialogue is principally between pairs of characters, sometimes almost monologues Maggie in Act I and Big Daddy in Act II. Both times it is a sullen, half-drunk Brick who is the recipient of the speeches, his replies brief and enigmatic. There is almost no action; Williams is not interested in what happens, only why it happens and to whom.
The SVP production has fine performances by Al Contursi, as Brick, tortured by demons of self-doubt that even he cannot define, and Barry Lichtenstein, as Big Daddy, fighting to keep his honor when it is being compromised around him. The second act, between the two men, is powerful, impressive theater. But Heather Rich in the pivotal role of Maggie (the "cat") disappoints. She certainly is sexy enough, but playwright Williams demands much more of his Maggies. Ms. Rich is at her best when she loses her temper; but Williams has written many of his best speeches for her quiet moments, and here Ms. Rich resorts to a whine, sometimes barely audible.
Pat Carpenter and Lori D’Elia contribute mightily as Gooper and Mae (Brick’s brother and his greedy wife). The latter stepped into the role on extremely short notice. Barbara Neff has some lovely moments as "Big Mama."
Director Prince has paid particular attention to the pace of the evening. Mark Taylor’s set design is tasteful and practical.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof continues at the Somerset Valley Players, 689 Amwell Road, Hillsborough, through May 18. Performances: Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. Tickets cost $11-$13. For information, call (908) 369-7469. On the Web: www.svptheatre.org

