Practice Prompt 3: Compare how space is used by Tennessee Williams’ play ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ and the film adaptation by Richard Brooks.Consider in what way the meaning has changed from the original.

Space

Setting (Places)

Relationships

Physicality (Blocking)

"Land" = Ownership

Bodies taking up space (feminist)

Big Daddy vs Big Momma

How close are the characters to each other?

How are props moved around the space of the stage / screen?

The Crutch

The Bed (epicenter / focal point)

The Liquor Cabinet (entertainment/distraction)

Williams (Play)

Bathroom (off-stage)

Brooks (Film)

Bedroom

Balcony (off-stage)

Outside (party)

Airstrip

Plantation

Bedroom

Hallway

Staircase

Living Room

Outside (Storm)

Cars: Cadillacs (symbol of freedom/escape)

Basement

The Mirror

The Doorway / threshold

Space in marriages/partnerships

Big Daddy / Big Momma

Gooper / Mae

Margaret / Brick

Peter Ochello / Jack Straw

Family

Margaret as outsider

Big Momma / Gooper & Brick

Big Daddy / Gooper & Brick

Genre

What 'space' does the text sit in?

Gothic (play)

Southern Gothic

Drama (film/play)

Literary Drama

Adaptation Theory

Southern Drama

What are the genres dominant in film vs theatre?

Is the text outside/on the edge of genres?

Themes: Racism, patriarchy, poverty

Themes: Alcoholism, sexual inequality, relationship breakdown

Themes: Horror, the "unspeakable", alienation, the sub-conscious

Context

1950s America

Civil Rights Movement

Hollywood Filmmaking

Broadway

Hays Code

Values: Often exonerates society / institutions and vilifies the individual

Mae: Vilified / Mobilises children or fertility / wealth obsessed / unintelligent

Big Daddy: Obsessed with immortality / "King Midas" / unable to "love" / uses people as means to an end / unfaithful(?)

Brick: Idolisation of Skipper / Physical decline / Alcoholism

Maggie: Catty / unfaithful(?) / wealth obsessed

Homosexuality

Gender roles/constraints

Transgression across gender (queering)

Mae/Big Momma pushed outside (balcony; edge)

Mae / homecoming queen being spat on by the alcoholic

Big Daddy / Brick

Brick / Maggie

Brick / Skipper

Peter Ochello / Jack Straw