Here are some questions to think about as you prepare for our discussion of "Cat On a Hot Tin Roof."
1. What makes a play "successful"? By what standards can we, as students of literature as well as people who attend dramatic performances, judge whether a particular work or a particular performance is good or bad, effective or ineffective? Could there be a great performance based on a bad script? Could a great script be effective despite mediocre performances?
2. How much can a producer and a team of designers, director, and cast change a playscript while still using the name the playwright gave it? Could a director essentially eliminate the characters of Gooper and Mae and their children in "Cat On a Hot Tin Roof," alter the dialogue spoken by Brick and Big Daddy to make it explicitly obscene, tack the Hollywood ending onto the stage play, and still use Williams' title for the show? Would audiences who arrive expecting to see the play Williams wrote have a right to protest?
3. By careful reading of the script, build character descriptions of Big Daddy, Mae, Big Momma, Maggie, Brick, and Gooper.
4. How are the relationships between Maggie and Brick on the one hand, and Big Daddy and Big Momma on the other, alike and different?
5. Based on what we can know from the text, would Brick or Gooper be a better person to run the plantation after Big Daddy dies?
6. Does the family do the right thing by lying to Big Daddy about his cancer?
7. What other specific instances of "mendacity" among the family members can you identify?
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