The Mesa College Theatre Company presented its latest production, Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”

Williams was a great writer who suffered from many problems during his childhood and life. The first production on Broadway was performed in 1955. There was also a movie made based on the play in 1958.

The play ran from May 11 to May 20 and was directed by Juan Castro.

The two main characters were Maggie, played by Hannah Townsend, and Brick, played by Matthew Evanoff. The other members of the cast were Ron Johnson, Linda Mendoza, Ryan Patrick Mirvis, Kimberly Ford, Luciano Pampos, Allison Hammond and Kayceelyn Alvarado.

The Mesa College Theatre Company produces four to five productions per year. All productions are student acted, designed and built.

The set consisted off a large bed with a rose behind it, a bar and doors that led to the rest of the house. The play is about a Southern family, Maggie and Brick Pollitt, and they live on Brick’s family plantation.

Brick’s father is a very successful cotton grower. He owned 28,000 acres of the finest land in Mississippi. Maggie and Brick married young. Brick had a best friend named Skipper who Maggie slept with and then Skipper ended up dying. This forced Brick to be weighed down by sadness, turning him in to an alcoholic.

He no longer wants to sleep in the same bed as Maggie and barely wants to converse with her in the beginning scene. We soon see that all the characters seem to be suffering from loneliness and lack of communication.

They find out Brick’s father is dying of cancer and may be celebrating his last birthday after lying to him and telling him his result came back negative for cancer. In reality, the tests come back positive but they did not want to inform the family until later in the evening.

Brick’s father wants to hand over his land to his son but is scared to because Brick has turned into a sad depressed alcoholic. Brick also had dreams of playing football but because of an injury and his friend passing away he had to quit, ending his dream. He became a sports announcer but that made him feel more depressed because he could only watch.

Brick’s father, referred to as “Big Daddy,” comments how he never loved his wife for the 40 years they were married.

Maggie, who was a show performer and was referred to as Maggie “the cat,” tells Brick she feels like a cat on a hot tin roof, and ends the scene by saying “There is nothing more desperate that a cat on a hot tin roof.”

One of the themes in the play was mendacity. Mendacity means to lie or be a liar. Big Daddy comments that liars surround him and Brick says he is sick of the mendacity. What do you do when everything you loved has been taken, how do you go on? Big Daddy comments, “Can’t buy your life back once it’s spent.”

Hannah Townsend did a great job portraying Maggie. The play has great messages with problems and conflicts that a lot of us can relate to: we all have dreams but when they never come true you have to live with things the way they are.