By Paul Love
Guest Reviewer
The plays of Tennessee Williams are as iconic as the man himself. These literary works are so well renowned that they elicit immediate familiarity with even non-theatregoers. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which premiered in 1955, is one of Williams’s most successful plays, garnering four Tony nominations, the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This monumental play is currently being staged by the Borelians Community Theatre group in Port Perry.
(L-R): Howard Linscott, Carolyn Goff, Kelly Whitehorse (on balcony), Ruth Smith (chair), Colin Murphy, Marlo Alcock, Vannetta Tustian, photo by Jonathan van Bilsen
Set in the mid-1950s on a plantation in the Mississippi Delta, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof tells the story of the well-to-do Pollitt family, led by cotton tycoon Big Daddy Pollitt (Bill Baker). Despite their wealth, the Pollitts are in turmoil: Big Daddy and his wife, Big Momma (Marlo Alcock), are always at odds with one another; their son Brick (Kelly Whitehorse) has turned to alcohol and become indifferent to his wife, Maggie (Carolyn Goff); Big Daddy and Big Momma’s other son, Gooper (Colin Murphy), and his wife, Mae (Vannetta Tustian), are always plotting and scheming to bilk Big Daddy out of his fortune. The worst of it all is that Big Daddy has terminal cancer, but he doesn’t know it because Gooper, Mae, and Maggie have decided to give Big Daddy false results from a recent medical exam, so as not to spoil his 65th birthday celebration, which is underway as the show opens. Throughout the play we discover that most of the characters are lying to each other about something.
The play begins in Brick and Maggie’s bedroom, with Brick sitting alone, nursing a drink, while struggling to be comfortable with the cast that is a memento of some silly, drunken behaviour the night before. Hearing Maggie approach, Brick races into the bathroom to hide. Maggie enters in a rage, annoyed by the antics of Gooper and Mae’s children. Once Brick reappears, Maggie launches into a high-energy, one-sided conversation about everything and everyone. Ms. Goff gives a mesmerizing performance as Maggie. She moves seamlessly from loud to quiet, intense to melancholic, sultry to coquettish — all while absolutely nailing the southern drawl. It is a character Ms. Goff was born to play. As Brick, Mr. Whitehorse gives a nicely understated performance, showing us a very inward-facing character who is disgusted by the world around him, and who is seeking solace at the bottom of whatever bottle he’s drinking from. Mr. Whitehorse says much with few words, allowing his complex facial expressions and body language speak volumes. Mr. Baker was clearly undaunted at the prospect of tackling the larger-than-life role of Big Daddy. He commands the stage whenever he walks onto it (as Big Daddy should), giving us a character who is so stoic that he could have been carved out of solid mahogany, but who is clearly thoughtful, intelligent, and even forward-thinking in some ways. Mr. Baker’s Big Daddy is a marvel to watch. As the very warm and gregarious Big Momma, Ms. Alcock is very enjoyable to watch. Big Momma is desperate to make sure everyone is happy and cared for, and we really get a strong sense of that in Ms. Alcock’s performance. Mr. Murphy and Ms. Tustian give great performances as the conniving Gooper and Mae. Ms. Tustian particularly shines in the scenes where Mae and Maggie engage in infinitely entertaining verbal sparring. Although they don’t have much time onstage, the rest of the cast — Ruth Smith as the doctor who shares the real medical results, Howard Linscott as the nervous Reverend Tooker, and Olivia Da Costa as Gooper and Mae’s troublemaking daughter, Dixie — all add nice moments to an excellent show.
(L-R): Bill Baker, Kelly Whitehorse, photo by Jonathan van Bilsen
Kudos to Director Kyle Brough for having his characters move about the stage naturally yet purposefully. Particularly mention must be made about the moments where there are groupings of characters in separate conversations, and Mr. Brough directs our attention from one to the other by having the volume of the conversation drop with one group as it rises with another. Shelley Martin’s set instantly calls back to a southern plantation-style home—French doors, curved windows, big balconies, and everything in white. The detailing with the only partially seen bathroom is a great touch. Costume Designer Kim Blanusa has chosen costumes that are perfect for the period but also say a lot about, or enhance, the characters themselves: Big Daddy’s brown palette adds to the deeply rooted, salt-of-the-earth feel of his character; having Gooper and Mae in similar tones to Big Daddy gives a subtle sense of their attempts to curry favour with him; Maggie’s blue dress is perhaps a signal of the skyward-gazing dreamer that she is, and it also adds a contrast to the clothes of Brick’s family, reminding us that she is very different from the family she married into; Brick’s silk pyjamas seem at home on a lethargic man who desperately seeks to be comfortable in his own skin, and the mint green colour is evocative of the mint juleps his family has probably sipped on the veranda throughout his life.
I highly recommend heading to Port Perry to experience this top-notch show performed by the Borelians.
Performances are at the Town Hall Theatre, 302 Queen St., Port Perry. Remaining performances are February 20, 21, and 22, at 8 pm, with an additional 2 pm matinee on February 22. Tickets are available by visiting the website.