Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Student Editions)

The commentary in this Student Edition delves into recent and upcoming productions of the play, including the Bollywood adaptation; the Antoine Fuqua adaptation of the 2008 all-Black production; the 2018 Old Vic production; and the 2022 Broadway production, starring Japanese-British actor Sonoya Mizuno as Maggie. It includes major themes in the play, including illness and mortality; white supremacy through the plantation setting; mendacity and ´fake news´; alcoholism and addiction; as well as sexuality, womanhood and mid-century masculinity. It draws attention to the context of the play, including the cultural, social and political landscape of the Mississippi Delta and St. Louis; the first-hand witnessing of Black life in the South; homosexuality and outsider sympathy; and American conservatism and the 1950s family. It dissects key characters of the play, including the figure of Big Daddy as being cut from the same cloth as the likes of Donald Trump and Harvey Weinstein; the crisis of masculinity in Brick; and Maggie with her explosive desire, desperation and agency. This edition offers an invigorating, contemporary take on Williams´s seminal 1955 play and is ideal for teachers, lecturers and students working on the play. Famously made into a Hollywood movie starring Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is arguably Tennessee Williams´s most celebrated play.