by Tennessee Williams

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof  was written in 1954 by Tennessee Williams. This controversial play, set in Mississippi during the 1950s, explores motifs of sexuality, social pressures, lies, and love by examining characters' relationships and behaviors in times of crisis. 

"A gripping and intensely moving play... Mr. Williams has the one vital gift a playwright must possess - he holds the interest. He makes you care by showing you a world." - Clive Barnes, The New York Times

(Williams, backcover)

Tennessee Williams on his purpose:

"The bird that I hope to catch in the net of this play is not the solution of one man's psychological problem. I'm trying to catch the true quality of experience in a group of people, that cloudy, flickering, evanescent - fiercely charged! - interplay of live human beings in the thundercloud of a common crisis."

(Williams II.116-117)

All play quotes were taken from the following source: 

Williams, Tennessee. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. New York: New Directions, 1975.