As a movie, it is immortal. Tennessee Williams 1950s play Cat on Hot Sheet Roof was made in 1958 with Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman in the lead roles. A sensual filmization that, according to a sifted moral fifties convention, departed from the central theme of all, namely son Brick's supposed homosexuality. Soccer star Brick, who drowns his grief after the suicide of teammate Skipper in bourbon and vodka.
Director Stefan Larsson has also wanted to make a film of the story. Just as in Linje Lusta with partly the same artistic team at Dramaten, he uses the film's opportunities to come close. With two camera operators on stage and a screen in the fund, we get a direct link to the characters' emotional lives. This is where we face their bitterness, pain, fear and lies in magnification. Initially it is effective, gradually it becomes static. Only once does technology open doors to another world. That's when the camera follows Brick behind the scene into the shower, where he lets water and fingers touch his naked torso in homoerotic longing.
Stefan Larsson seems to want to access the naked and raw of man. It is also manifested in Sven Haraldsson's stage room, which is as empty as on an unmade double bed and a litter with liquor. Yellow fluorescent lamps indicate the heat of the American South, but the play is placed in the present and can be played anywhere.
The soloist efforts are of course blameless , sometimes brilliant. Erik Ehn as Brick is a paralyzed victim who does everything - and quite successfully - to hide his fear of alcoholism, Livia Millhagen's Maggie is understandably bitchy in light of her life situation as a hostage in a marriage where the agreement is "no sex". Marie Göranzon is a queen of delusion, who in lack of control tries to maneuver her family, Peter Andersson's cancer patient Big Daddy rails with his men's chauvinism, but seems to really listen to Brick's confession - which nevertheless fails.
Unfortunately, too often the pieces fall apart in this collaboration between Dramaten, Kulturhuset Stadsteatern and Maximteatern. Andreas Kundler and Cilla Thorell have nothing more than to suggest their roles as son Gooper with husband, Jan Malmsjö as doctor and Bashkim Neziraj become the most amusing shadow characters. The ensemble play fails and the lack of meeting is evident. Which is certainly one of the play's motifs.