"Cat" at Rhinebeck . . .


The set says a lot: a bar for Brick, an empty bed for Maggie, and pillars for show, pillars like Tara’s, except these pillars are sounder than the old Southern uprights built with Confederate dollars. These pillars were built with Big Daddy’s Missisippi cotton fortune in 1950s greenbacks.

Tennessee Williams’ "


Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" in Rhinebeck opens with a clear picture of old Southern charm. And eternal human cupidity.

 

For Big Daddy (Joe Felece), a really nasty, fat guy, is dying of cancer and does not know it. Nor does his dithery and abused wife, Big Mama (Sally Dodge).His offspring and their mates do, however, and have come to his 65th birthday to be sure they get a big slice of what he will be leaving behind.

Because of numerous revivals and ElizabethTaylor’s film, this is probably Williams’ best-known play — with Maggie the Cat (Caitlin Cahill), famously bouncing around in a white slip, trying to convince her mate, Brick (Michael Brooks), to 1., sleep with her and 2., sober up enough to lay claim to what is rightfully his. And hers.

And she is competing with Brick’s brother, Gooper (Thomas Webb), his wife, Mae (Erika Tsoukarelis), and their no-necked progeny for the spoils.

Williams spares us nothing. We get lashings of greed, depression, bad temper, rage, cruelty and a spot of homosexuality before we are done with these difficult and overwrought characters. It all seems a little old and strained, and efforts to update things by using a cell phone to photograph Big Daddy at his birthday party don’t help.

Directed by Lou Trapani, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" runs at The Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck through Nov. 4. For tickets, call 845-876-3080.

 

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