more brian

October 3, 2007 at 1:36 am (IB theatre)

This past friday 9/28/08 i saw the play “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” By Tennesse Williams at the DBCC. I must say, the play itself is a goodp lay. But it was not done justice to. The set was meager but functional. It had some serious ugly going on. The actual windows to the outside of the house were that of which looked literally like a bunch of boards that were thrown over the top of nothing. It gave it a really cheap look to the set but the house is supposed to be VERY wealthy. It had a very gross pale pink as the interior color and the format of the hosue didn’t make much sense. I worked on this play for districts last year and while some people may have hated it (Mr. Kuiper…..and the judges) but the biggeest problems came from:

  • the actor who plays brick naturally had a Boston accent, so his southern accent was VERY obscure
  • Maggie was terrible, Mary jeanes could have acted circles around her!!!!
  • Mae seemed to be a little too insincere
  • they didn’t use the children
  • THEY USED THE MOFO-ING ALTERNATE ENDING!!!! that was the biggest problem i had 

I LOVED the original ending, it was how Tennesse Williams intended it to end, but Elia Kazaan said he should change it because Big Daddy was too importiant of a character to leave after the second act. The only benefit to this was that we got to see the amazing performance by big daddy again. I did hate that, it changed the idea of the play completely. I HATED IT!! GAH!!! Overall, i wouldn’t see this play again–unless it was done properly. If not, then it’d be pointless to see it, im ight as well read it again if i’m just going to see crap, at least in my head i can imagine what it’d look like if it’s done well.

Big Mama and Big Daddy were great. The actor who played Brick is a good actor, but this role didn’t reflect it so much. The costumes were good, and that might be as far as i would commend the show. I know it’s community college, but that’s no excuse for poor theatre. Other wise, i do enjoy the play cat in general, i didn’t choose it without a reason for districts. Unfortunatly, i don’t think i was able to convey what i wanted with the actors i used. Randy wasn’t a great brick. Mary was a good Maggie. Anthony goofed off at every rehearsal with Randy. I think if i had a more productive cast, i could have accomplished much more than i did.   

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