Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Description

In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof a Southern family meet to celebrate 'Big Daddy' Pollit's birthday: Gooper with his wife and children, his brother Brick - an ageing, broken football star - and his wife Maggie. But as the party unfolds the facade of a happy family gathering is fractured by sexual frustration, repressed love, and greed in the light of their father's impending death. This Student Edition provides an extensive introduction and notes by Philip C. Kolin, a world authority on Williams. The introduction includes: a chronology of Williams' life and times; a summary of the plot, commentary on the characters, themes, language and context, and a production history of the play. Together with questions for further study and notes on words and phrases from the text, this is the essential edition of the play for students of literature and drama. Since it was made into a Hollywood film starring Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is arguably Tennessee Williams' most celebrated play.

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948 and for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955. In addition, The Glass Menagerie (1945) and The Night of the Iguana (1961) received New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards. Philip C. Kolin is Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern Mississippi, USA. One of the leading world experts on Williams, his many books include Confronting Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams: A Guide to Research and Performance and The Tennessee Williams Encyclopedia.

'Methuen Drama's series...is consistently setting a high standard for a specialized market...(this) new release of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, edited by Philip C. Kolin, is a particularly representative example of what is best about Methuen's series.' Kolin...takes full advantage of Methuen's stylistic template for the series, with excellent supporting sections...' Students and teachers, not to mention theatrical practitioners, will find much to value in this well-constructed and moderately priced edition. With any luck, Methuen will continue to add titles to this series edited by scholars of Kolin's calibre.' * James Fisher, Broadside, June 2011 *