Rock Ridge Performing Arts strikes again with their winter play, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” on Jan. 24.  Set in eastern Mississippi in a large plantation home fit for twenty, pivotal characters, Maggie (portrayed by senior Jaden Thomas) and Brick Pollitt (portrayed by junior Palmer Jolly) are arguing off the bat, which takes up the majority of the first act of the show. 

The play is split into three acts and spans two hours. Each act brings in new stories and characters, adding on to the already complicated lives of the big and boisterous Pollitt family. Brick is a struggling alcoholic who is now on crutches after trying to relive his glory days, and Maggie is a bored housewife who doesn’t want to leave her husband even though the two can’t conceive children, causing contention between the two of them. 

To make matters worse, the patriarch of the family, Big Daddy’s birthday party is just hours away. Big Daddy, played by junior Ronald Hodge, is the patriarch of the brood, but he has his hands full with a lingering cancer diagnosis that he and his wife Big Mama (senior Kaylie Rivers) are in denial about. Gooper Pollitt (junior Ryan Hart), Brick’s older brother, and his wife Mae (senior Annabelle Monte) also live in the house with their five rambunctious kids: Dixie (senior Bella Hasbun), Trixie (junior Reagan Sutton), Buster (senior Bo Lucas), Polly (junior Ella Diatawan), and Sonny (Hannah Tyson). 

The first act introduces the dynamics and relationships between the characters, hinting at vague undertones of Brick’s hidden sexuality and big moments like when Brick and Maggie get into a grand-scale fight with his crutch. Tensions are so high between them that even Brick admits to Dixie that he “tried to kill [Dixie’s] aunt Maggie.” 

When the second act rolls around, new characters are added into the mix: Reverend Tooker (junior Andres Marrero) and Doc Baugh (junior Geoffrey Banks), who only enhance the chaos that is (or what’s supposed to be) Big Daddy’s 65th birthday party. Like most family gatherings, chaos ensues almost immediately, with Big Daddy asking Brick the age-old question: why does he keep drinking?

This is the pivotal, ever-changing moment for Brick, because it’s then revealed that he and his longtime friend Skipper, who recently committed suicide, were much closer than friends, and he had the self-realization that he was actually in love with him. The night that Skipper died, he had called Brick and confessed his love for him, and Brick hung up the phone. It’s implied that Brick started drinking copious amounts of alcohol to combat the guilt and grief he feels over that night.

Act three makes for extra family drama: Doc Baugh reveals to Big Mama that Big Daddy is actually dying of cancer, and Gooper attempts to make plans to shut down the Pollitt estate, which ends up being futile, and start looking at Big Daddy’s will, where he effectively cut Brick and Maggie out of any of his money. At the very end, likely to preserve her spot in Big Daddy’s will, Maggie tells everyone that she’s pregnant — a big, fat lie. As the curtains close, the audience is left to create their own interpretations of the nature of Brick and Maggie’s relationship.

This show has been in the works until May 2024, and the keen preparation that’s gone into bringing “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” to life hasn’t gone unnoticed. From an intricate set filled with details of the south to an entire alcohol shelf (that’s really just sweet tea), the cast and crew worked hard to make this a stellar production, even on top of everything else in their lives. “It can be quite a challenge [to balance] being involved in different [theatre productions] and schoolwork,” senior Charisse Rose Caparros said, who plays the role of Small, one of the Pollitts servants. “I’ve always been a paper-planner type of girl, [so] when I have a new show coming up, I jot down what rehearsals I’m called to, and when it comes to schoolwork, I jot down [my] assignments and deadlines.”

But even past the technical details, a lot of work went into the actors bringing this show and these characters to life. The preparation for the actors was extensive and intense. The actors in the show did a lot of “process dramas” (an improvised scenario) to hone their skills and really get in touch with their characters in a different setting. “Participating in such a complex show that requires such focus has helped me grow both in my acting abilities and [relationships] with the other members of the company,” Marrero said.

Rivers felt similarly—it was a tough task to take over such an intricate character. “The most challenging part of Big Mama is the same as the most enjoyable part: her range of emotion,” Rivers said. “I loved being able to be super giddy and excitable one moment, then super in touch with everything around me the next. It was difficult to continue switching so much while trying to maintain the put-togetherness Big Mama always tries to upkeep. I had to shake off my emotions as Kaylie and try to switch my mindset to Big Mama.” 

“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” was supposed to run for an additional weekend following Jan. 24 and 25, but was ultimately postponed due to unforeseen circumstances.

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Maya Coleman

Big Mama (senior Kaylie Rivers) happily lifts an unwilling Reverend Tooker (junior Andres Marrero) on her lap. “Big Mama is exactly how you would imagine [she is] based off of her name,” Rivers said. “She is super outgoing, funny, and an all or nothing kind of gal who cares a little too much about those she loves.”