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Genius!
The Usual Obligatory Hysteria From Tennessee Williams!!!
"Skipper Is Dead But I'm Alive! Maggie The Cat Is Alive!"
I love this play
Williams Masterpiece

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Tennessee Williams
Manufacturer: Signet
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0451171128

Book Description

Williams's Pulitzer Prize-winning play has captured both stage and film audiences since its debut in 1954. One of his best-loved and most famous plays, it exposes the lies plaguing the family of a wealthy Southern planter of humble origins.

Customer Reviews:

Genius!.......2006-01-13

I believe Tennesee Williams is the most versatile modern playwright who truly exemplifies the dysfuctionality of family morals. The Glass Menagerie, Streetcar Named Desire, and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof are indeed his masterpieces. I found Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to be my most favorite. The characters were memorable (who can forget Margaret "aka Maggie The Cat," Brick, Big Daddy, and Big Mama?) and the lines truly classic ("What's the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof? Just staying on it, I guess, as long as she can..."). Also, just like Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on A Hot Tin Roof touched upon subjects that were controversial then and just as controversial now (homosexuality, child molestation, prostitution, etc.), which makes Tenesee William's works highly relevent. His plays age well with time. Not to mention that there have also been INCREDIBLE movie adaptations of all of his famous plays. After you read Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, or Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie, watch the movie as well. There is no other modern playwright (except Oscar Wild and Anthony Wilson)whose plays will truly have a place in my heart for years to come.

The Usual Obligatory Hysteria From Tennessee Williams!!!.......2005-10-30

This play is the usual extreme histrionics that I have come to expect from Tennessee Williams. In this book set on a Southern Plantation we have the obligatory hysterical woman, an alcoholic and a homophobe. After a while one cannot help but get the impression that Mr. William's works all consisted of the same stock, cardboard characters and he only changed the settings and their names.I do give this book 5 stars because I have always liked Elizabeth Taylor who starred in the movie of this play although she is in fact a Real Life Serial Monogamist as the Sociologist would refer to her .

"Skipper Is Dead But I'm Alive! Maggie The Cat Is Alive!".......2005-08-11

Only Williams could have gotten away with naming his hero "Brick," as names were always his strong suit. He found comfort in names, and a wild exotic beauty, and even in his last faltering years was usually able to pull a final name out of his hat, something perfect. I remember seeing CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF on stage, with Elizabeth Ashley, some time before I read the play, so naturally my experience of the text is colored by Ashley's sizzling interpretation of Maggie the Cat, all hisses and feral screams. She was so strong I can barely remember who played Brick or Big Daddy in that production. I think it was Keir Dullea from DAVID AND LISA. Maybe Big Daddy was the man from the MUNSTERS TV show. What we, the audience, cared about was if Maggie was going to get her wway and triumph over all the mendacity and the "no neck monsters" that were swarming the plantation.

Maggie gets angry, but mostly we value her for her tenderness. Even when she knows her husband has lost his heart over a long-gone teammate, and that he's probably gay, she never gives up the ship. She knows that without her in his corner 100 per cent, he'll give up, drown in his own sorrows. He needs her to kick his ass and bring him back to the land of the awake. She wasn't going to be an enabler, she would always discourage him from drinking from the time he got up in the morning till he passed out at night, his crutches tangled up in his boxer shorts. For Brick, drinking is a way out of his tortured memories of Skipper, the boy he loved in high school and college. Taking a drink is "like a switch, clickin' off in my head. Turns the hot light off and the cool one on and all of a sudden, there's peace." Secretly the family has a plan to ship his butt off to Rainbow Hill, sort of a Betty Ford Clinic without the mercy.

We love Maggie trying to semaphor the truth into his thick skull by screaming, "Skipper is dead but I'm alive! Maggie the Cat is alive!"

I love this play.......2005-07-13

Tennessee Williams was a genius. This play runs the full spectrum of human emotion-desire, frustration, depression, denial, grief, longing,need, inadequacy. Its all laid right out in shocking bursts of deep naked revelation. This is my favorite play of all time.

Williams Masterpiece.......2005-06-09

This is classic Tennessee Williams, deep characters and family secrets. The characters are so well written, especially Brick and the undercurrent of the story is always swirling. Secrets are bubbling up and everyone is fighting over something real or perceived. It is a wonderful character study and you really can't put it down. Even though the 50's movie with Taylor and Newman was wonderful, the play is so much better. I would really enjoy a new big budget look at this story, one that really follows the play, it's time.

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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Tennessee Williams
Manufacturer: New Directions Publishing Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0811216012

Book Description

The definitive text of this American classic—reissued with an introduction by Edward Albee (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and A Delicate Balance) and Williams' essay "Person-to-Person."

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof first heated up Broadway in 1955 with its gothic American story of brothers vying for their dying father's inheritance amid a whirlwind of sexuality, untethered in the person of Maggie the Cat. The play also daringly showcased the burden of sexuality repressed in the agony of her husband, Brick Pollitt. In spite of the public controversy Cat stirred up, it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the Drama Critics Circle Award for that year. Williams, as he so often did with his plays, rewrote Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for many years—the present version was originally produced at the American Shakespeare Festival in 1974 with all the changes that made Williams finally declare the text to be definitive, and was most recently produced on Broadway in the 2003-04 season. This definitive edition also includes Williams' essay "Person-to-Person," Williams' notes on the various endings, and a short chronology of the author's life.

One of America's greatest living playwrights, as well as a friend and colleague of Williams, Edward Albee has written a concise introduction to the play from a playwright's perspective, examining the candor, sensuality, power, and impact of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof then and now.

The Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Vol. 3: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof / Orpheus Descending / Suddenly Last Summer

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Human emotions captured as poetry brought to life in a play
THRILLING
You won't be disappointed OR bored with this volume

The Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Vol. 3: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof / Orpheus Descending / Suddenly Last Summer
Tennessee Williams
Manufacturer: New Directions Publishing Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

United States | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

The Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Vol. 1: Battle of Angels / The Glass Menagerie / A Streetcar Named Desire
The Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Vol. 7: In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel, and Other Plays
Theatre of Tennessee Williams Volume 2: Eccentricities of a Nightingale, Summer and Smoke, the Rose Tatoo, Camino Real (Theatre of Tennessee Williams)
The Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Vol. 4: Sweet Bird of Youth / Period of Adjustment / The Night of the Iguana
Lovesick: Modernest Plays Of Same-Sex Love

ASIN: 0811211967

Customer Reviews:

Human emotions captured as poetry brought to life in a play.......2007-05-31

Tennessee Williams (Born Thomas Lanier Williams) has always been one of my favorite American authors. I highly recommend this reading for literature students and blooming actors alike. TW has the ability to add colorful symbolism to real emotions coming out of real people without sounding pretentious.

These books should be required reading in advanced high school. But are probably omitted due to the sexual undertones that are in TWs writing.

Certainly books that can be enjoyed later in life.

THRILLING.......2001-04-01

In the history of theatre, I am sure that future generations will find that Tennessee Williams was the one playwright who not only wrote of the neuroses and souls of his fellow Americans, but did so with extraordinary beauty and grace.

In this collection one can find three of his most famous plays, two of which, unhappily, do not seem to be revived very often. So although it is always better to SEE a play rather than READ it, that may not be very easy.

"Orpheus Descending" deserves to be rediscovered--a highly poetic, gothic horror story of the battle between art, spirit, soul and sensuality, sexuality. Originally written for the brilliant Italian actress, Anna Magnani, it was in fact played on Broadway by the equally brilliant American, Maureen Stapleton.

"Suddenly Last Summer" was actually the basis for a very long, very self-conscious study I did for a college psych. class. Here in one of Williams most "symbol-laden" plays is his cry for an unfeeling world to accept human beings with all their faults (BECAUSE of all their faults, perhaps?) told through the disturbing memories of a woman whose family wants those memories shut up at any cost.

All three movie versions of these plays are faithful to the originals UP TO A POINT. Try to see the plays, but if that is impossible do yourself a favor: read all of Williams, including his poetry and short stories, and start with this thrilling volume of 3 of his best plays. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

You won't be disappointed OR bored with this volume.......2000-08-28

The three choices for this volume fit very well together. All three include themes that are so often covered in Williams' work. Bizarre family situations, unrequitted love and battles within the self are portrayed, often brutally, in these works. For example, the struggle experienced by "Maggie the Cat" in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" is a raw blend of self hatred, self love, longing for what can't be mixed with a fearsome attempt of "keeping up appearances" within the confines of a, to say the least, very unhealthy extended family situation. I think another fine example of Williams' flair for the, shall we say extraordinary, is "Suddenly Last Summer." It's not easily described without giving away many shockers so I won't spoil that here. I highly recommend this volume as the two I just mentioned are absolutely fantastic. Also, don't ever pass up the chance of seeing the film versions of these (I speak of the originals in this case).

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Cat On A Hot Tin Roof
Tennessee Williams
Manufacturer: New Directions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: A Play in Three Acts

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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: A Play in Three Acts
Tennessee Williams
Manufacturer: Dramatists Play Service
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Deluxe Edition)
A Streetcar Named Desire

ASIN: B000E0P1VO

Product Description

Actors edition of drama first presented in New York in 1955.

Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Modern Critical Interpretations)

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Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Modern Critical Interpretations)

Manufacturer: Chelsea House Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof : Movie Tie In Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor Cover
Tennessee Williams
Manufacturer: Signet
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Tennessee Williams
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Tennessee Williams
Manufacturer: A Signet Book
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Manufacturer: Secker & Warburg
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