Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (20 page)

[
He X above wicker seat to above R end
couch.
]

MAE:

Brick, I never thought that you would stoop to her level, I just never dreamed that
you would stoop to her level.

GOOPER:

I don't think Brick will stoop to her level.

BRICK
[
sits R of
Margaret on couch
]:

What is your level? Tell me your level so I can sink or rise to it.

[
Rises.
]

You heard what Big Daddy said. This girl has life in her body.

MAE:

That is a lie!

BRICK:

No, truth is something desperate, an’ she's got it. Believe me,
it's somethin’ desperate, an’ she's got it.

[
X below seat to below
bar.
]

An’ now if you will stop actin’ as if Brick Pollitt was
dead an’ buried, invisible, not heard, an’ go on back to your peephole
in the wall—I'm drunk, and sleepy—not as alive as Maggie, but
still alive. . . .

[
Pours drink, drinks.
]

GOOPER
[
picks up
briefcase from R foot of bed
]:

Come on, Mae. We'll leave these love birds together in their nest.

MAE:

Yeah, nest of lice! Liars!

GOOPER:

Mae—Mae, you jes’ go on back to our room—

MAE:

Liars!

[
Exits through hdl.
]

GOOPER
[
DR above
Margaret
]:

We're jest goin’ to wait an’ see. Time will tell.

[
X to R of bar.
]

Yes, sir, little brother, we're just goin’ to wait
an’ see!

[
Exit, hall.

[
The clock strikes twelve.

[
Maggie and Brick exchange a look. He drinks
deeply, puts his glass on the bar. Gradually, his expression changes. He utters
a sharp exhalation.

[
The exhalation is echoed by the singers,
off UR, who commence vocalizing with “Gimme a Cool Drink of Water
Fo’ I Die,” and continue till end of act.
]

MARGARET
[
as she
hears Brick's exhalation
]:

The click?

[
Brick looks toward the singers, happily,
almost gratefully. He XR to bed, picks up his pillow, and starts toward
head
of couch, DR, Xing above wicker seat. Margaret seizes the
pillow from his grasp, rises, stands facing C, holding the pillow close. Brick
watches her with growing admiration. She moves quickly USC, throwing pillow onto
bed. She X to bar. Brick counters below wicker seat, watching her. Margaret
grabs all the bottles from the bar. She goes into hall, pitches the bottles, one
after the other, off the platform into the UL lawn area. Bottles break, off L.
Margaret reenters the room, stands UC, facing Brick.
]

Echo Spring has gone dry, and no one but me could drive you to town for
more.

BRICK:

Lacey will get me—

MARGARET:

Lacey's been told not to!

BRICK:

I could drive—

MARGARET:

And you lost your driver's license! I'd phone ahead and have you
stopped on the highway before you got halfway to Ruby Lightfoot's gin mill. I
told a lie to Big Daddy, but we can make that lie come true. And then I'll
bring you liquor, and we'll get drunk together, here, tonight, in this place
that death has come into! What do you say? What do you say,
baby?

BRICK
[
X to L
side bed
]:

I admire you, Maggie.

[
Brick sits on edge of bed. He looks up at
the overhead light, then at Margaret. She reaches for the light, turns it out;
then she kneels quickly beside Brick at foot of bed.
]

MARGARET:

Oh, you weak, beautiful people who give up with such grace. What you need is someone
to take hold of you—gently, with love, and hand your life back to you, like
something gold you let go of—and I can! I'm determined to do
it—and nothing's more determined than a cat on a tin roof—is
there? Is there, baby?

[
She touches his cheek,
gently.
]

CURTAIN

Copyright © 1954, 1955 by The University of the South

Renewed 1982, 1983 by The University of the South

Introduction copyright © 2004 by Edward Albee

"Swinging a Cat" Copyright © by R. Brian Parker

"Author and Director: A Delicate Situation" Copyright © 1957 by The
University of the South

Copyright © 2004 by New Directions Publishing Corporation

All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in a newspaper,
magazine, radio, television, or website review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the Publisher.

CAUTION:
Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned
that
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
, being fully protected under the copyright laws
of the United States of America, the British Empire including the Dominion of
Canada, all countries of the Berne Convention, and of all other countries with which
the United States has reciprocal copyright relations, is subject to royalty. All
rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, lecturing,
public reading, radio and television broadcasting, video or sound recording, all
other forms of mechanical or electronic reproduction, such as CD-ROM, CD-I,
information storage and retrieval systems and photocopying, and the rights of
translation into foreign languages, are expressly reserved. Particular emphasis is
laid on the question of readings, permission for which must be secured from the
agent for The University of the South, Casarotto Ramsay & Associates Limited,
National House, 60-66 Wardour St., London W1V 3ND, England.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
is published by special arrangement with
The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee.

Inquiries concerning the amateur rights of
Cat on a Hot Tin
Roof
should be directed to The Dramatists Play Service, 440 Park Avenue
South, New York 10016, without whose permission in writing no amateur performance
may be given.

The editor thanks Mitch Douglas for his continued support and for
generously sharing his extensive knowledge about Tennessee Williams.

The Dylan Thomas epigraph is from "Do not Go Gentle into that Good
Night," from
The Selected Poems of Dylan Thomas, 1934-1952
, copyright 1952
by Dylan Thomas, published by New Directions.

Design by Semadar Megged

First published clothbound by New Directions in 1955. This revised
version of the play, first published clothbound and as New Directions Paperbook 398
in 1975. Reissued with an Introduction by Edward Albee as New Directions Paperbook
997 in 2004.

Published simultaneously in Canada by Penguin Canada Books, Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Williams, Tennessee, 1911-1983.

Cat on a hot tin roof / by Tennesse Williams.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-8112-2077-4

1. Inheritance and succession––Drama. 2. Fathers and sons––Drama. 3.
Terminally ill––Drama. 4. Mississippi––Drama. I. Title.

PS3545.I5365C37 2004

812'.54––dc22

2004011665

New Directions Books are published for James Laughlin

by New Directions Publishing Corporation

80 Eighth Avenue, New York 10011

BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

PLAYS

Baby Doll & Tiger Tail

Camino Real

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Clothes for a Summer Hotel

Dragon Country

Fugitive Kind

The Glass Menagerie

A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur

Not About Nightingales

The Notebook of Trigorin

The Red Devil Battery Sign

Small Craft Warnings

Something Cloudy, Something Clear

Spring Storm

Stairs to the Roof

Stopped Rocking and Other Screen Plays

A Streetcar Named Desire

Sweet Bird of Youth

THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME I

Battle of Angels, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie

THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME II

The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, Summer and Smoke, The Rose Tattoo, Camino Real

THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS,VOLUME III

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending, Suddenly Last Summer

THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME IV

Sweet Bird of Youth, Period of Adjustment, The Night of the Iguana

THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME V

The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, Kingdom of Earth

(The Seven Descents of Myrtle), Small Craft Warnings, The Two-Character Play

THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME VI

27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other Short Plays

THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME VII

In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel and Other Plays

THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME VIII

Vieux Carré, A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, Clothes for a Summer Hotel,

The Red Devil Battery Sign

27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other Plays

The Two-Character Play

Vieux Carré

POETRY

Androgyne, Mon Amour In the Winter of Cities

PROSE

Collected Stories

Hard Candy and Other Stories

One Arm and Other Stories

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone

The Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams, Volume I

Where I Live: Selected Essays