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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; As they mingled in the lobby during intermission, theater-goers Nancy Olson, of Kingston, and Joann Wynn, of Ashley, marveled at what they&#8217;d just seen and heard during the first act of Tennessee Williams&#8217; &#8220;Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;She&#8217;s tremendous,&#8221; Olson said, referring to Angel Berlane Mulcahy&#8217;s performance as Maggie in the Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre production, which continues through March 5.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s amazing how someone can memorize all those lines,&#8221; Wynn said.</p><p>Playwright Williams gave character Maggie a great deal of dramatic lines, as well as insight into her troubled relationship with her husband, Brick, played by Dave Giordano.</p><p>&#8220;Living with someone you love can be lonely,&#8221; Maggie tells him.</p><p>But then, maybe she doesn&#8217;t actually &#8220;live with&#8221; him. As she puts it, &#8220;We occupy the same space.&#8221;</p><p>Though she sometimes feels discouraged &#8212; Maggie has thought about going to the kitchen for &#8220;the longest, sharpest knife,&#8221; with which to commit suicide &#8212; she is determined to revitalize their marriage.</p><p>&#8220;My hat is still in the ring,&#8221; she says.</p><p>Of course, Maggie&#8217;s not the only character with memorable lines. After Brick, who is suffering from a broken ankle, angrily chases her around the bedroom with his crutch and subsequently falls, one of the couple&#8217;s five impish nieces and nephews comes in and asks Uncle Brick what he&#8217;s doing on the floor.</p><p>&#8220;I tried to kill your Aunt Maggie,&#8221; he says.</p><p>Maybe that&#8217;s one of the few true statements in a play about characters who lie to each other a great deal &#8212; about little things such as who bought a birthday present, and larger issues, such as who is terminally ill and who&#8217;s secretly attracted to whom.</p><p>Following the Feb. 19 performance, Tennessee Williams scholar Annette Saddik, who is a professor of English and theatre at the City University of New York, led a talkback with the audience and the cast.</p><p>She said Williams had reworked the script several times, at one point to please Broadway director Elia Kazan, and that several versions exist. &#8220;This one seems to be the 1973/74 version,&#8221; she said.</p><p>The play takes place in Mississippi, where Williams lived in his youth, and the title reflects a remark his father once made to his mother, about her making him &#8220;as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof.&#8221;</p><p>Saddik praised the cast for their performance, giving special kudos to Eric Lutz, as Brick&#8217;s brother, Gooper, for the way he portrayed the quiet exasperation of a sibling whose parents consider him a second-rate son, even though &#8212; unlike Brick &#8212; he&#8217;s not an alcoholic and has provided them with several grandchildren.</p><p>&#8220;He did everything right,&#8221; Saddik said, expressing sympathy for the character.</p><p>Production coordinator David Parmelee added praise for Giordano who, as he portrayed a constantly drinking Brick, had to act progressively drunk over a span of three hours.</p><p>If you attend the show, you&#8217;ll see plenty of fascinating moments &#8212; among them Big Mama&#8217;s odd attack on the visiting preacher man, Big Daddy&#8217;s vivid description of elephants at a zoo and, not to be forgotten, five youngsters running around with sparklers and kazoos.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Maggie, played by Angel Berlane Mulcahy, tries to make her husband, Brick, played by Dave Giordano, see things her way in &#8216;Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.&#8217; </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/web1_cat3-3.jpg</photo0><caption0>Maggie, played by Angel Berlane Mulcahy, tries to make her husband, Brick, played by Dave Giordano, see things her way in &#8216;Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.&#8217; </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photos </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/web1_saddik.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Saddik </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/web1_saddik.jpg</photo1><caption1>Saddik </caption1><photoCredit1>Submitted photos </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO</strong></p><p><strong>What:</strong> &#8216;Cat on a Hot Tin Roof&#8217;</p><p><strong>Where:</strong> Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre, 537 N. Main St., Wilkes-Barre</p><p><strong>When:</strong> Through March 5 with performances 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays.</p><p><strong>Info:</strong> 570-823-1875</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Tennessee Williams scholar led talkbalk for Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre