Review: CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, Theatr Clwyd, Feb 10 2016

Tamara Harvey begins her tenure as artistic director of Theatr Clwyd with Robert Hastie's delightful and thought-provoking production of Tennessee Williams's Southern plantation melodrama, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Addressing eternal themes of sexuality, gender roles and the bewildering nature of love, Hastie directs with an assured hand, but is clearly helped by the quality of the cast.

Catrin Stewart is luminous as Maggie the Cat, by turns shrill, melancholic, flirtatious and manipulative, but always captivating. Gareth David-Lloyd glowers with temper as her alcoholic husband Brick, and magnificently conveys an intensifying feeling of horror as he descends further into addiction and misery and muteness.

Desmond Barritt is surprisingly funny as Big Daddy, a role that could easily turn to caricature; meanwhile, Abigail McKern's Big Mama grins and bears it as her husband rails against her and her sons think of nobody but themselves.

Andrew Langtree and Catrin Aaron, as the elder brother and his self-aggrandising wife, begin as comic relief as Maggie complains about their brood of "no-neck monsters", and end as a pair who would apparently genuinely consider hastening the deaths of their own flesh and blood to ensure their financial security.

The lighting (by Colin Grenfell) is clever and well-chosen; Janet Bird's set design is straightforward, offering a raised balcony as well as a front walkway without over-complicating matters (or the view).

This production is currently playing in Mold - theatre-goers in Swansea and Cardiff are strongly advised to get a ticket as it tours in Wales this spring. It's not often such a neat and considered revival is on show.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is at Theatr Clwyd until Mar 5, then on tour in Swansea and Cardiff.