Nothing is ever truly erased. There is always a trace, a ghost of a clue as to what was once there and how to invoke it into being again.
Barry Park, a director for the Graduate Dramatic Society, knows the truth of this statement.
In fact his latest show, Tennessee Williams’ Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, is a testament to this. Park is presenting Perth with the restored 1974 version of the script, not the originally censored 1955 Broadway debut and consequent 1958 film which starred Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman… both of which had the explicit references to homosexuality removed from them.
‘Tennessee Williams was a fantastic writer who rewrote a lot of his own scripts and of course he was writing in the 1950s when gays and lesbians were really persecuted and victimised,’ Park recently told OUTinPerth.
‘There was a lot of gay bashing that went on in those days, so he was writing at a time when he couldn’t be really honest about who he was. The original production was censored and the gay themes were actually virtually removed.’
It wasn’t, however, Williams’ choice to remove these references.
In a letter to director Elia Kazan in 1954, Williams admitted that he believed the main character Brick was ‘homosexual with a heterosexual adjustment’, a diplomatic way of saying he was repressed and in denial.
Still, Kazan persisted with the revisions and omissions he wanted, and Williams grudgingly obliged. That was, until 1974.
‘In 1974 (Williams) rewrote the play for The American Shakespeare Company in Stratford, Connecticut, and he made some major changes to the script and put back a lot of the references to the relationship between Brick and his friend Skipper, who had just killed himself.
‘What has happened is his best friend Skipper has obviously revealed his desires for Brick and Brick just couldn’t handle this, along with latent homosexual feelings he’s repressing.
‘It’s the nature of the society he’s living in: the Deep South of America in the 1950s. And so he’s repressed all these feelings and he’s finding it really difficult to come to terms with the guilt that he’s feeling.’
This has led to a breakdown in the relationship between Brick and his wife Maggie and slowly but surely Brick’s anger, self-loathing and alcoholism takes its toll.
Add a father dying from cancer and a conniving brother who, along with his wife, are plotting to snaffle up the family inheritance – including the huge plantation – and the tension mounts.
‘Brick’s father, interestingly, is the one who shows the greatest understanding and compassion towards his son, pointing out that he has learnt to tolerate homosexuality. And he uses that word – tolerance – a lot,’ Park pointed out.
‘It’s interesting that Big Daddy implies that Brick’s relationship with Skip was more than platonic, and in fact he explains that his plantation where the play is set was previously owned by two gay men and that the bedroom where this play takes place is the bedroom of the men who lovingly shared their lives together.
‘In fact in the stage directions Williams refers to the room as being one that “evokes ghosts, that it is poetically haunted by a relationship that was uncommon at the timeâ€.’
Park does suggest that the play reflects a relationship Williams had had in his own life with a fellow called Kip who consequently rejected him in a most ferocious manner.
‘The similarity between the names Kip and Skipper (Brick’s friend in the play) is striking,’ Park added.
And while Williams went on to try and blot out the memory and pain with alcohol, drugs and other self-destructive habits, it’s clear that not every trace of this unrequited love was erased.
And, for the sake of more than just theatre and art, nor should it be.
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, directed by Barry Park and starring George Gayler (Margaret) and Neal Huxley (Brick), appears at UWA’s Dolphin Theatre October 30 and November 3 – 6 and 10 – 13. Tickets are available now. www.bocsticketing.com.au
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
