Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, by iconic playwright Tennessee Williams, is the story of a Southern family in crisis. The Pollit family throws a party to celebrate the birthday of patriarch Big Daddy, "the Delta's biggest cotton-planter." All family members (except Big Daddy and his wife, Big Mama) are aware that Big Daddy is dying of cancer; they have lied to Big Daddy and Big Mama to spare them pain on his birthday. Maggie, witty and beautiful, has escaped a childhood of poverty to marry into the wealthy Pollitt family, but finds herself unfilled. The family is aware that favorite son Brick has not slept with Maggie for a long time, which has strained their marriage. Brick, an aging football hero, infuriates her by ignoring his brother Gooper's attempts to gain control of the family fortune. Brick's indifference and his near-continuous drinking relate to the recent suicide of his friend Skipper. Maggie fears that Brick's malaise will ensure that Gooper and his wife Mae end up with Big Daddy's inheritance. Over the course of one evening, the party devolves into a miasma of greed and mendacity that threatens to tear the family apart.