“˜Cat’ out of the bag for family secrets

As a array of contemporary films and TV shows like
“Desperate Housewives” point out, nearly every family
has its own secrets and lies meant to keep up appearances ““ a
fact Tennessee Williams was all too familiar with when he wrote his
play “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” in 1955. The play,
currently at the Geffen Playhouse through Dec. 18, is the dark tale
of a family gathering on the Southern estate of the family
patriarch, Big Daddy (John Goodman), to celebrate his birthday as
cancer threatens to take his life. His impending death ignites an
entertaining battle between his daughters-in-law, Maggie the Cat
(Jennifer Mudge) and Mae (Kirsten Potter) to secure the rights to
Big Daddy’s land and wealth after his dies. Meanwhile, his
younger son, Maggie’s husband Brick (Jeremy Davidson), looks
on indifferently at his family’s struggles, all the while
clutching a continually replenished glass of alcohol. The entire
play takes place in the room shared by Maggie and Brick, and it
does not take long to realize that whatever image Big Daddy’s
family has tried to create, it will shatter in this room. Even Big
Daddy, to whom doctors and family members have been lying, telling
him his failing health is only a spastic colon, cannot begin to
celebrate his temporary relief from mortality because he is
pummeled by signs that his family is not only falling apart, but
has been living with lies for years. His favorite son is an
alcoholic, possibly homosexual, dislikes his wife, and claims they
never had a good father-son relationship. And Big Daddy cannot
ignore the greedy eyes with which his family eyes his fortune. As
Big Daddy, Goodman does not enter the play until the second act,
during a scene that becomes a constantly interrupted dialogue
between him and Brick. The interruptions by Potter, who plays a
perpetually pregnant housewife, are welcome because of the
charming, smiling way she delivers snide comments to the childless
Maggie about just how much Big Daddy loves her pack of kids. Her
subsequent eavesdropping is hilarious. But Goodman’s
performance as the hillbilly-turned-business tycoon family
patriarch commands the full attention of the audience and makes one
note his absence when he leaves the stage. He perfectly captures
the nuances of a man who is often abusive and egotistical (he barks
out orders and four-letter words at the members of his family and
demands their respect) but who also has a vulnerable, sensitive
side which he slips into at unexpected moments. Indeed, it is hard
not to feel pity for a man who is mercilessly forced to accept the
reality that his family is completely dysfunctional during what may
be the final weeks of his life. And while many of the words coming
out of Big Daddy’s mouth are offensive or belittling to his
family, in the style of a Southern backwoods father, he also shows
a deep affection and compassion for a son who is choosing to waste
his life away as a drunk. You gain respect for Big Daddy when
Goodman confidently delivers his simple yet significant
philosophies about man’s selfishness and primitiveness, and
his understanding that a person cannot take back a life once it has
been spent. Despite playing a crude or even vulgar man, Goodman is
able to create a character who demands sympathy for his human fear
of death and his frustration with his shortcomings as a father. He
even sounds rather heroic in his honest attempts to love his son
despite his failings, as well as his ardent desire to live life to
the fullest and see that his family does, too. Big Daddy’s
emotional fluctuations and unstable personality make for a dialogue
that is much more engaging than that between Brick and Mae in the
first and last acts. While Mudge, as Maggie, certainly looks the
part of a Southern belle with a crazy streak, her performance is
not especially engaging and drags on rather flatly. Largely devoid
of action, Brick and Mae’s conversation about how she is
going crazy because he will not sleep with her or do anything to
secure his father’s wealth turns into an endurance test from
which Goodman’s stage entrance is a welcome relief. And from
the first moment he takes the stage, Goodman does not fail to
delight and captivate in this brutally honest portrait of a family
forced to confront the lies on which their relationships have been
built.

““ Jess Rodgers