Cyprus Theatre Organisation

03.11.2022

'Cat on a hot tin roof' by Tennessee Williams

Rehearsals begin

News

On Tuesday 1 November 2022, rehearsals began for Cat on a hot tin roof by Tennessee Williams, directed by Paris Erotokritou, with an impressive group of actors, musicians and creatives. This will be Thoc’s second Main Stage production and it will premiere on 13 January 2023.

About the play

One sultry summer afternoon in the American South, the well-off Pollitt family have gathered to celebrate the sixty-fifth birthday of the dying patriarch, Big Daddy. The elder son, Gooper, and his wife, Mae, plan to lay claim to Big Daddy’s estate, depriving the younger son, Brick, and his wife, Maggie, of their share. Brick and Maggie’s marriage is on the rocks. Brick, a former footballer, is in a state of physical, mental and emotional decline, which is worsening day by day. While he attempts to drown his pain in alcohol, the dynamic Maggie fights passionately to escape the misery and darkness. Amidst a fraught atmosphere and intensifying conflict, the edifice of the family begins to crumble.

Written in the mid-1950s, Cat on a hot tin roof is one of Tennessee Williams’s most famous and popular theatrical successes. It premiered in March 1955 at the Morosco Theater in New York in a production directed by Elia Kazan, winning Williams the Drama Critics Circle Award and a second Pulitzer Prize. A few years later, it was adapted into a successful film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman.

Tennessee Williams exposes the harshness of social convention and the pain of battered emotions in a play about lies and hypocrisy, and the fragility of family and interpersonal relationships.

Paris Erotokritou brings his own particular directorial perspective to this rich material. As he notes: “The play has many themes, but it is particularly useful to explore the human relationship with time and the ghosts that haunt countries, families, relationships and individuals.”

Credits

Translation: Nikos Hatzopoulos
Director: Paris Erotokritou
Sets: Elena Kotasvili
Costumes: Shona Muir
Music: Christos Yerolatsitis
Movement: Elena Antoniou
Music coach: Anastasia Dimitriadou (Nama Dama)
Video art: Stavros Charalambous
Lighting design: Georgios Koukoumas
Assistant director: Maya Kyriazi
Design assistant: Ifigenia Avraam

Cast (in order of appearance):

Maria Skoula: Maggie
Giorgos Kritharas:  Brick
Maria Filippou: Mae
Erica Begeti: Big Mama
Haris Pisias: Big Daddy
Andreas Voulgaris: Reverend Tooker
Marios Metti: Gooper
Sofia Ioannou: Doctor Baugh

On-stage musicians: Anastasia Dimitriadou (Nama Dama), Kyriakos Kestas,  Omiros Miltiadous, Christos Yerolatsitis

With the participation of the children: Andreas Christou, Konstantinos Bello, Aliki Papageorgiou, Sotiria Spyrou

Performances

From 13 January 2023
Nicosia: Main Stage Evis Gavriilidis Auditorium and on tour