‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ still sizzles in 2018

This “Cat” still sizzles, even after 63 years.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” by Tennessee Williams sent theater temperatures soaring when the Mississippi Delta-set play debuted to acclaim back in 1955.

The decades have seen stars including Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, Tommy Lee Jones, Jessica Lange, Ben Gazzara, Natalie Wood, James Earl Jones and Lawrence Olivier playing Williams’ classic characters.

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It still resonates enough that director Kristofer Green and producer Theresa Lauricella chose “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” to open the Clark State Theatre Arts Program’s 2018-2018 season.

The show contains mature themes and is recommended for an adult audience.

The roof and curtain will be raised at 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 2, Saturday, Nov. 3, Friday, Nov. 9 and Saturday Nov. 10, and matinee performances at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 4 and Sunday, Nov. 11 at the Clark State Performing Arts Center’s Turner Studio Theatre.

According to Lauricella, she and Green discussed potential titles a year ago, and with a handful on the table, decided on “Cat.”

“Because it is an American classic and the students in the program had yet to present a Tennessee Williams play,” she said.

Green likes that the play’s major themes remain relevant to modern audiences and was interested in how it translates now.

“The play asks the question as to whether it is better to live by lies or by truth as each character grapples with what their truth actually is,” said Green. “The play is an attack on a world in which we lie to ourselves and others.”

He added that one of the fresh things is it is probably easier now than it was in the 1950s to get a handle on the play.

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“The work was considered salacious and sensationalist by some, but now maybe the play could be seen for its true colors,” Green said.

The cast includes 10 adult actors, most Clark State students, and four child actors.

Community actor and Clark State theatre production veteran Saul Caplan will play Big Daddy, a role he performed in a Dayton production previously.

He was in recent Clark State productions of “Laughter on the 23rd Floor” and both parts of “Angels in America” as Roy Cohn.

Aimed at an adult audience, “Cat” explores themes that haven’t gone out of fashion.

“I have discovered that the play exposes the illusions that sexuality is some kind of predetermined absolute and that material possessions can guard you against death. Those ideas were certainly relevant in the 1950s and for a large portion of our country are still relevant today,” Green said.


HOW TO GO

What: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Where: Clark State Performing Arts Center, Turner Studio Theatre, 300 South Fountain Ave., Springfield

When: Friday, Nov. 2, Saturday, Nov. 3, Friday, Nov. 9 and Saturday Nov. 10, 8 p.m.; Sunday, Nov. 4 and Sunday, Nov. 11, 2 p.m.

Admission: $15.30

More info: 937-328-3880 or go to www.facebook.com/clarkstatetheatre/

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