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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Civic’s ‘Cat’ does justice to playwright’s classic

“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”

Spokane Civic Theatre’s Main Stage, Thursday night

The Spokane Civic Theatre has found one feisty Cat in its engaging production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”

Chasity Kohlman prowls and purrs her way through this powerful Tennessee Williams classic about a dysfunctional (and rich) Southern plantation family in the 1950s.

Director Jessica McLaughlin has also found a moody, charismatic Brick in Damon C. Mentzer.

With its large cast and enormous emotional swings, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” is not easy to nail perfectly. Yet with a strong Maggie the Cat and a strong Brick, this production is consistently engrossing.

It certainly communicates Williams’ unsurpassed ability to take standard family drama themes – alcoholism, battles over inheritance – and make them “King Lear”-like in emotional intensity.

This play is an advanced playwright’s seminar in how to create vivid, colorful characters who defy easy stereotyping. For instance, Big Daddy (played with large presence by Lauren Bathurst) is rich, domineering and cruel to his wife. But he also has an astonishing streak of tolerance.

“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” also offered one other revelation: It was the “Brokeback Mountain” of its time.

The theme of homosexuality was diluted in the 1958 Paul Newman-Elizabeth Taylor movie version but is surprisingly overt in this, the original stage version. Brick drinks constantly not because his wife, Maggie, has driven him to it, but because his best friend and football buddy Skipper drank himself to death. Brick was destroyed by the death – but he had already been destroyed by the friendship.

The play has no “Brokeback Mountain” love scenes, because Skipper never appears and, in any case, Brick and Skipper never acted on their tendencies. Yet it certainly has “Brokeback”-style tragedy. As the play progresses, it is clear that Brick’s death-wish has arisen from mourning over Skipper – and, more damaging, a burning guilt over his feelings for and ultimate rejection of his friend.

That theme is clear in this version – the word “queer” is bandied about – yet still seems subtle.

Overt, yet subtle – now that’s the work of a master playwright.

Kohlman won me over as Maggie right from the start, which is a good thing since the first act is practically all-Maggie. Brick is in the room as well, but he is moody and uncommunicative.

Maggie prowls the stage, often wearing a black slip, and alternately seduces and pleads with Brick. Yes, she is manipulative. Yes, she wants Big Daddy’s money. Yet Kohlman, with a credible Southern accent and a talent for imbuing her lines with heart, makes us realize that she is a good woman trying to make the best of an intolerable situation.

Mentzer must convey his feelings mostly with a whiskey glass in the first act, but he comes alive in the third act, especially in a searing, revelatory scene with Big Daddy.

Among the supporting cast, the standout was Jean Hardie as the big, brassy and very self-deluded Big Mama. There was something noble, yet sad, in the way she convinced herself that Big Daddy, who hates her, still loves her.

Noble yet sad – another master playwright’s trick.

The set, by Peter Hardie, is national-class – an airy plantation bedroom, on three levels, with light streaming in through slats and a veranda outside the French doors. It allows director McLaughlin plenty of open space, so her characters, especially Cat, can stalk and pace and burn nervous energy.

It would be too much to expect a perfect “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” Several scenes could stand to be dramatically sharpened. The pace and cues overall need to be picked up. Since I saw a preview performance, these issues may have already been addressed.

Even so, I left the theater feeling that I had seen the genuine article, from a director who understood Williams’ intentions. “Cat” is American playwriting at its pinnacle.