Cat On A Hot Tin Roof Tickets

This excellent production marks a long-awaited return to the stage by director Benedict Andrews, who has enjoyed a recent smash hit production of another all-time favourite, A Streetcar Named Desire. Now it's time for Tennessee Williams’ well-loved, painfully poetic tale of one family’s fight for survival and a real twentieth century masterwork to shine brightly again. As you can imagine, the anticipation is already mounting in theatreland.

How does the story go? The action is set in the smart Mississippi Delta plantation home belonging to Big Daddy Pollitt, a super-rich cotton tycoon. It explores the fascinating and dysfunctional relationships between members of Big Daddy's family, focusing in particular on the interactions between his son Brick and Brick's wife Maggie, nicknamed 'the Cat'.

One steaming hot night the family gather at the plantation to celebrate Big Daddy’s birthday. The scorching heat is almost as oppressive as the lies they tell each other... and themselves. If you thought us Brits were repressed, this family takes the proverbial biscuit! Both Brick and Maggie will do anything to avoid dealing with the secrets and sexual tensions that threaten their marriage. But the entire family's future is at stake, and something has to give. In the end it's hard to tell whose version of the truth to believe.

The original Broadway production, back in 1955, was directed by Elia Kazan and starred Barbara Bel Geddes as Maggie, Ben Gazzara as Brick and Burl Ives as Big Daddy himself. Bel Geddes was nominated for a Tony and Kazan was nominated for Best Director of a Play. The 1958 film version, starring our own home-grown Hollywood beauty Liz Taylor and the splendid Paul Newman, scored a huge hit too. No wonder when it's such a powerful piece.

The play explores the nature of social habits, greed, superficiality, lies, decay, desire, repression and death. Williams himself made a slew of dramatic changes to the script for a 1974 revival. And that's the version that has been revived time and time again, in numerous countries, ever since. This time around the awesome Sienna Miller stars as Maggie alongside Jack O’Connell as Brick. If that isn't enough top class theatre action for you, you might also want to grab tickets for another popular classic musical Annie, starring the splendidly funny Miranda Hart.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is recommended for people age 15 and over.