Art
Tennessee Williams play “A cat on a hot tin roof”
If you are familiar with the work of Tennessee Williams then you probably have heard of “A cat on a hot tin roof”, a play he wrote in 1955 and won a Pulitzer prize.
It was Williams’ 5th play adapted for the screen in 1958. The film directed by the famous Greek/American director Elia Kazan casted popular Hollywood actors like Liz Taylor and Paul Newman. At the theatres it was first shown in New York on Broadway at the Morosco theatre in 1956.
A cat on a hot tin roof – movie poster online for Wikepedia by Reynold Brown
The American Tennessee Williams, born in the South of the States in the town of Columbus (Mississippi), was a prolific writer. When he died at the age of 71, he left numerous plays, novels, poems but also short stories and his memoirs. In “A cat on a hot tin roof” he touches topics he knows well such as alcoholism addiction, depression, death, cancer, relationship problems and homosexuality. He had to battle against alcoholism just like his father and went into many rehab clinics. His parents had marriage problems and ended up separating. Lastly it was known that he was homosexual. His friend Frank Merlo, with whom he was together for 14 years, died of lung cancer.
Tennessee Williams with his birthday cake for the 20th anniversary of the opening of The Glass Menagerie – LC-USZ62-128957 Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
All subjects Williams talked about are still very relevant almost seventy years later: alcoholism and drug dependence, betrayal, communication problems between spouses or parents and children, death and dying, depression, inheritance fights, jealousy between siblings, infidelity, lies and homosexuality. Something a bit different is that while in the 50’s talking openly about homosexuality was very taboo, today having a coming-out is more natural and normal.
For the 30th anniversary of Williams’ death just like for the 100th anniversary of his birth many theatre directors around the world have readapted his famous play. This year the adaptation of Rob Ashford with the beautiful Scarlett Johansson as Maggie and Benjamin Walker as Brick was shown on Broadway for 15 weeks at the Richard Rodgers theatre. In 2007 in Berlin, Germany it is director, Thomas Ostermeier, who showed Tennessee ‘s “A cat on a hot tin roof”. Williams himself had readapted his original work in the 1970’s, adding more to it.
Stay tuned as tomorrow we will talk about the adaptation of Stefan Pucher at the Pfauen theatre in Zurich.
