WASHINGTON — “Oh, you weak, beautiful people who give up with such grace. What you need is someone to take hold of you — gently, with love, and hand your life back to you, like something gold you let go of — and I can! I’m determined to do it. And nothing’s more determined than a cat on a tin roof, is there?”
Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer-winning words not only speak to the timeless themes in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” but describe the entire live theatre experience, taking gentle hold of we audiences in the dark, then handing our lives back to us, now through April 24 at Round House Theatre in Bethesda.
“There is a theatrical magic that’s very difficult to define and describe, but dog-gone-it, you really know it when you feel it … ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ is a play for the ages. It’s one of the great masterworks of dramatic literature,” actor Rick Foucheux tells WTOP.
The play follows Southern patriarch Big Daddy (Foucheux), wife Big Mama (Sarah Marshall), son Brick (Gregory Wooddell) and his sexually frustrated wife Maggie “the Cat” (Alyssa Wilmoth Keegan). Wrestling over the family estate, the characters unravel their secrets en route to a shocking climax.
“The scholars claim that this is Tennessee’s masterwork, but of many masterworks. Just say, ‘Streetcar’ and everyone knows … But this did come later in his writing career in the mid ’50s. In fact, he was putting the finishing touches on his first draft in the summer of 1954, the summer that I was born, so when I read that in my history reading, I used it as something of a talisman,” Foucheux said.
It’s a fitting talisman for Foucheux, who grew up near Williams’ beloved New Orleans.
“I grew up in in the bayou country, and to be able to embrace this character of Big Daddy brings back all kinds of memories of guys I saw coming into my dad’s barber shop … I would sit there as a little boy and just listen to these old rascals come in and just wax eloquent all day long about the simplest of things, so that they would take the tiniest thing and make it seem huuuuge,” Foucheux recalls.
While Foucheaux has a geographical connection to Williams, lead actress Keegan describes herself as a “good mid-western girl” born and raised in Michigan. For her, Williams has become something of a family affair, as her talented actor husband, Thomas Keegan, just recently played the pivotal role of The Gentleman Caller in Williams’ breakthrough play “The Glass Menagerie” at Ford’s Theatre.
“I think the language is as rich as it was in ‘Glass Menagerie.’ Tennessee Williams is amazing with language. I think that the pace (of ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’) is complementary to that show. I think the struggle of sense of identity and needing to break free of whatever circumstance you’re in currently is a big theme for him, so I think those (two plays) go hand-in-hand,” Keegan tells WTOP.
Foucheux didn’t see the Ford’s production of “Menagerie,” but it remains his favorite play.
“It has always been and remains my favorite play … I think because of Tennessee’s ability to turn the everyday into something so heartrendingly poetic. And yet, it still sounds like it’s coming out of the mouths of regular people … The poetry jumps off the page. When you’re putting a play on, when you’re speaking these words, you begin to realize just how magisterial his talent was,” he said.
Not only is the language poetic, the compelling characters are super complex, starting with the iconic role of Maggie The Cat. Originated by Barbara Bel Geddes on Broadway in 1955, the role was etched forever in our minds by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1958 Oscar-nominated film of the same name.
“What I thought about her initially was that she’s this iconic sex symbol … What I realized is that she is hilarious. She’s really funny! I had read it, but until I started really inhabiting it in rehearsals, I didn’t know what a ham she was. She’s not just sexy because she’s physically attractive, she’s a cut-up. She’s someone people want to be around because she just commands a room,” Keegan said.
As for her co-star, Gregory Wooddell, his role is just as juicy. Made famous on the silver screen by Paul Newman, the character of Brick is a closeted homosexual with a scarred relationship past. Hobbling on crutches, we realize Brick’s torment is more than just the physical pain of his foot cast.
“I think for such a complex relationship — and such a complex character that doesn’t say nearly as much as the people around him — he’s done a really nice job at developing a whole internal dialogue, so he’s even speaking when he’s not literally speaking,” Keegan said.
Such latent homosexual themes were incredibly groundbreaking for the 1950s.
“What he was getting at in this play was the question of identity and who are we really? It was a question he lived with all his life. So even though the characters in this play do not exactly mirror him and his family … I think he picked up a lot in his own life that he shows to us,” Foucheux said.
One can imagine Williams typing autobiographically, pouring out his own sexual identity.
“The relationship between Brick and Big Daddy is at once punishing and hopeful … This might have been a place where Tennessee hoped his father might have sat him down and said, ‘I know I’m a bastard, but I’m gonna give you the opportunity to talk.’ I’m not sure Tennessee ever got that, but maybe in his heart of hearts, he really really wanted it,” Foucheux said.
Such themes are barely visible in the 1958 film directed by Richard Brooks, as Golden Age Hollywood was not quite ready to go that far in exploring gay rights. In fact, it had just waded into the topic of race with Liz Taylor’s “Giant” (1956). Thus, “Tin Roof” was far more subtle and subversive in theme.
“(The movie) is a lot different than the play, and I know Tennessee was really upset by that, because there is this idea and this struggle with homosexuality that plays a very large part of the play, and in the movie, it’s almost entirely absent. And so, the conflict between Brick and Maggie and his dead friend Skipper, you don’t know why there’s that conflict so much in the movie,” Keegan said.
Williams also had creative struggles with the play’s original Broadway director Elia Kazan — his greatest collaborator — who had directed the 1947 Broadway production of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” followed by the 1951 film of the same name starring Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh.
It was Kazan who pushed Williams to insert a sliver of hope into “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”
“He really encouraged Tennessee to rewrite Act Three and make it lighter. It was very dark, and Big Daddy never came in at the end. (Kazan) just wanted it palatable for an audience. He wanted people to leave and at least have an idea that potentially there could be some happiness at the end. Williams was much more interested in it being real … but it wasn’t something that would sell well. He came to terms with that with the Broadway production and found a sense of peace about it,” Keegan said.
Foucheux says Kazan made the right call — not because it allows his Big Daddy character more time on stage, but because it adds far more satisfaction for the audience.
“I agree with Elia Kazan (who) encouraged/forced him to put Big Daddy back into Act Three. He said, ‘A character that important, it may be artistically important to you, Tennessee, but the audience demands to know what happens. They demand to see this character again,'” Foucheux said.
So like a cat with nine lives, “Tin Roof” has come to life in numerous iterations. His personal favorite play, Williams constantly tinkered with it, rewriting portions again for the 1974 play by Michael Khan.
“The poor writer comes up against a lot of struggles, hurdles and blows in his fight with the marketplace. There are things that were inside of Williams that he wanted to write, that the marketplace at that time just wouldn’t bear. Even in 1974, when he was updating it … there were still some things he had to tip-toe around. Those were the days when we were just beginning to break open the boundaries of what we could talk about as a civilized and caring society,” Foucheux said.
Now, in 2016, we’re entirely free to explore these topics, making the production at Round House Theatre a must-see addition to the canon. The show is directed by Mitchell Hébert, who won a Helen Hayes Award directing Foucheaux in “Glengarry Glen Ross” at Round House Theatre in 2013.
“Mitch calls the play ‘operatic realism,’ and I think the set really follows that. The downstage playing area is perfectly realistic and you feel like you’re in the faded drawing room of an old plantation mansion. But it’s surrounded by these towering shutters that open at various stages and go up into the netherworld. I think that makes you understand that we’re here on Earth, but we’re constantly searching and reaching for something up in the sky,” Foucheux said.
Only here, we needn’t reach for the sky. All we must reach for is the stage curtain, a free proposition if you’re a high schooler thanks to Round House’s altruistic “Play it Forward” program.
“It’s an unbelievable offer … for any high school student to be able to come to the box office and get a free ticket to any show,” Keegan said.
How might the deep themes of Tennessee Williams speak to a high schooler?
“I think it’s right up their alley. Identity, dealing with family drama, dealing with difficult sexuality questions. I think that it’s a hot, intriguing, fraught play, and I think that absolutely echoes what they’re dealing with in their own lives,” Keegan said.
Foucheux agrees that the themes translate perfectly to today’s youth.
“Among the many things you think about when you see this play is that money can’t buy everything. That’s probably a pretty good message for a student to hear today,” he said.
In other words — Williams’ words — what kids need is someone to take hold of their lives, gently with love, and hand it back to them like something gold, only in this case for free. Round House Theatre is determined to do it — and nothing’s more determined than a cat on a tin roof, is there?
Click here for ticket information. Listen to the full convo with the cast members below.
