A Smoldering 'Cat' Prowls the Lyric Stage

"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"

Written by Tennessee Williams; directed by Scott Edmiston; scenic design by Janie E. Howland; costume design by Gail Astrid Buckley; lighting design by Karen Perlow; sound design by Dewey Dellay

Cast in order of appearance:

Margaret, Georgia Lyman; Brick, Kelby Akin; Reverend Tooker, Jeffrey B. Phillips; Doctor Baugh, Dale Place; Mae, Elisa MacDonald; Big Mama, Cheryl McMahon; Gooper, Owen Doyle; Dixie, Grace Brakeman; Sonny, Jonah Yannis; Trixie, Nora Panahi; Big Daddy, Spiro Veloudos

Performances: Now through March 14, The Lyric Stage Company, 140 Clarendon Street, Boston, Mass.

Box Office: 617-585-5678 or www.lyricstage.com

The intimate acting space of Boston's Lyric Stage turns out to be the perfect setting for director Scott Edmiston's smart, sensitive, sexually charged production of Tennessee Williams' masterpiece Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Just as the hovering relatives Mae, Gooper, Big Mama and Big Daddy intrude on Maggie and Brick's bed-sitting room as annoyingly as Mississippi Delta mosquitoes, audience members become reluctant eavesdroppers whose voyeuristic presence only adds to the tension that already exists between these caged and estranged wild animals.

Beneath the shimmering white elegance of this beautifully appointed Cat hide desperate hopes and unspeakable fears. Burning embers of desire and pain smolder below gossamer thin layers of lies, self-delusion, pointed sarcasm, and elaborate denial. Brick drinks, Big Daddy blusters, Mae and Gooper scheme, and Big Mama flusters. But Maggie - the nimble and nervous cat of the title - determines to hold shattered illusions and lives together through bold manipulation and absolute will.

Convening ostensibly to celebrate Big Daddy's 65^th birthday, the younger members of this quarrelsome Pollitt brood in reality are jockeying for control of the 28,000-acre plantation on which they all live. This is the day they plan to convince Big Mama that her domineering husband needs to draw up a will, since the "spastic colon" that has been causing him so much pain is really cancer - inoperable and therefore soon to be fatal. Elder son Gooper is the logical choice to assume control given that he is a successful attorney and has five children with a sixth on the way. Yet former star football player and sports announcer Brick is the fair-haired son, despite his inability to produce an heir with his beautiful and sultry wife Maggie, and his rapid descent into alcoholism since the death of his best friend and teammate Skipper.

It is the lingering question about the nature of this friendship that fuels the dynamics in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. When the revelation of Big Daddy's true condition forces that question to be openly addressed, repressed rage and devastating truths suddenly combust.

Under Edmiston's seamless direction, this Cat is much more an ensemble piece than a star vehicle. Georgia Lyman as the title character Maggie tiptoes wonderfully between being strong, vulnerable, loving, seductive, hurtful, cajoling and controlling. But her first act soliloquies - delivered as nervous filibusters designed to force a convivial relationship with Brick despite the fact that none exists - truly sizzle because of Kelby Akin's commanding silent responses to her insistent chatter. Akin's pacing tiger, hobbled by a cast and a crutch that resulted from Brick's late-night drunken attempt to jump the track field's hurdles, is as restless as Lyman's cat is, trying desperately to drink himself into the peaceful oblivion that lets him forgive and forget. Too often actors playing Brick seem numb from the outset, detached and unaffected by the unnamed inner anguish that eventually erupts like a volcano. Akin's Brick, however, ripples with anxiety, posturing indifference but clearly hungry to reach the alcoholic "click" that will free him from the pain of his self-loathing and disgust.

The second act confrontation between Brick and Big Daddy is equally electric. The Lyric's artistic director Spiro Veloudos, in his first appearance on stage in 12 years, is compassionately unrelenting in forcing his favored son to strip away the layers of lies he has been telling himself about his feelings for Skipper and why he drinks. Akin writhes on the floor in a torrent of emotion, wrestling with guilt, protestations, regret, and profound loss. When the focus suddenly shifts and Big Daddy is now the one who must face an unwanted truth, it is Veloudos' turn to unleash a wail of suffering, his strutting peacock instantly disintegrating into a lonely, beaten man.

The rest of the cast maneuvers through Williams' exquisite prose as adeptly as do the three leads. Elisa MacDonald as the conniving and catty Mae is comical without being a caricature, and Owen Doyle as her browbeaten husband Gooper (and the unheralded, unloved sibling) is sympathetic even when harassing his own mother with a briefcase full of legal papers. Cheryl McMahon as the much put upon Big Mama is amiable, meek, and a little sad given the many years of her husband's bullying she's had to endure. But when she's pushed to the brink and forced to take action, her fierce loyalty to Big Daddy, for better or worse, turns her from a skittish housewife into a towering matriarch.

The Lyric's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a delicately balanced exploration of the shifting of domestic power in a family where denial is its only glue. Ultimately the person who controls the mendacity is the only one at peace with the truth.

PHOTOS by Mark S. Howard: Georgia Lyman as Maggie and Kelby Akins as Brick; Spiro Veloudos as Big Daddy and Cheryl McMahon as Big Mama; Kelby Akins and Georgia Lyman

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