Murk of the Mississippi envelops theatre-goers in Leeds
The West Yorkshire Playhouse's production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof must be heading for the most-reviewed record books, thanks to the Guardian's collaborative exercise with you, the readers. That's finished now, as is the production in Leeds, but Northerner writer Fran Talbot, who studies at Benton Park school in Leeds, still has something to add. Here it is:
The scene was set. On stage, a fan whirred monotonously round, doing little to dispel the thick soup of the Mississippi delta air, or the sense of frustration at the forefront of everything.
Maggie flounced on stage, and so three hours in the company of the dysfunctional and deeply unhappy Pollitt family began.
Admittedly this is not the smoothest of metaphors, but the only thing I can liken the play to is a 1950s-style EastEnders. Although Phil Mitchell fails to make a surprise cameo and denounce the Pollitts as liars in a booming cockney accent, he might well have done. All the parallels are there. Suicide, alcoholism, homophobia, a loveless marriages and deceit. Lots, and lots of deceit.
Famous predecessors: Paul Newman as Brick and Elizabeth Taylor as Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/MGM
The whole play is centred on the various family members lying to each other. Brick lying to Maggie, Maggie lying to Big Momma, Big Momma lying to Big Daddy, Big Daddy lying to Gooper and so forth.
All this is done with the utmost precision from the cast. Zoe Boyle's portrayal of catlike Maggie, oozing sexiness and beguilement, is darkly contrasted to Jamie Parker's portrayal of Brick and his cold indifference to anything but whiskey.
Although not always mentioned in a review, it's hard to imagine what the play would have been like without the score of lurking bass and crashing cymbals, courtesy of the Leeds Improvised Music Association.
And two more: Lindsay Duncan (Maggie) and Ian Charleson (Brick) in the 1988 National Theatre production at the Lyttleton in London. Photograph: Alastair Muir /Rex Features
To say that a few skeletons are unearthed during the course of the play would be an under-statement. Skeleton after skeleton surfaces from the dark waters of the Mississippi - and hits the audience right where it hurts. In one scene, Brick lurches at Maggie with a chair, and narrowly misses sending her sprawling to the floor. This sent up an uneasy ripple of laughter from the audience, which I found very disturbing.
Perhaps it is because Brick's chair forced us to reflect upon our own lives, and realise that sometimes we are not so different from the Pollitt family. And that ensured that long after the set was dismantled, and the saxophonist caught the bus home, the story of Cat On a Hot Tin Roof would lurk somewhere at the back of our minds.
Fran Talbot, 14, was a runner-up in Amnesty International's 2012 Young Human Rights Reporter of the Year competition. She blogs here.