National Theatre Live: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Feb 22, 2018

2h 37m

★ 4.5

Overview

Tennessee Williams’ twentieth century masterpiece Cat on a Hot Tin Roof played a strictly limited season in London’s West End in 2017. An alcoholic ex-football player drinks his days away, having failed to come to terms with his sexuality and his real feelings for his football buddy who died after an ambiguous accident. His wife is crucified by her desperation to make him desire her: but he resists the affections of his wife. His reunion with his father—who is dying of cancer—jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son.

Genres

Drama

Production Companies

Young Vic

National Theatre

National Theatre Live: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Trailers

Cast

Maggie

Sienna Miller

Brick

Jack O'Connell

Big Daddy

Colm Meaney

Brian Gleeson

Mae

Hayley Squires

Big Mama

Lisa Palfrey

Michael Shannon

Richard Hansell

Amelie Green

Tabitha Byron

Spoiled playboy Henry van Cleve dies and arrives at the entrance to Hell, a final destination he is sure he deserves after living a life of profligacy. The devil, however, isn't so sure Henry meets Hell's standards. Convinced he is where he belongs, Henry recounts his life's deeds, both good and bad, including an act of indiscretion during his 25-year marriage to his wife, Martha, with the hope that "His Excellency" will arrive at the proper judgment.

6.2

The Entertainer

Jul 25, 1960

Archie Rice, an old-time British vaudeville performer sinking into final defeat, schemes to stay in show business.

6.9

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead

Feb 8, 1991

Rosencrantz and Guildensterm, minor characters from the play 'Hamlet', find themselves on the road to Elsinore Castle at the behest of the King of Denmark. The duo encounter a band of players before arriving to find that they are needed to try to discern what troubles the prince Hamlet. Meanwhile, they ponder the meaning of their existence.

7.4

The Lion in Winter

Aug 20, 1968

Henry II and his estranged queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, battle over the choice of an heir.

No Image Available

0.0

Alice in Funderland

Invalid Date

In Dublin for her sister's wedding, Alice's night takes a curious turn when she stumbles into Hartstown, and has a series of very odd encounters with the local nightlife.

7.0

One Night in Miami...

Dec 25, 2020

In the aftermath of Cassius Clay's defeat of Sonny Liston in 1964, the boxer meets with Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown to change the course of history in the segregated South.

7.1

The Doors

Mar 1, 1991

The story of the famous and influential 1960s rock band and its lead singer and composer, Jim Morrison.

7.3

Hamlet

Dec 25, 1996

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother now marrying the murderer... his uncle. Meanwhile, war is brewing.

6.4

Me and Orson Welles

Sep 5, 2008

New York, 1937. A teenager hired to star in Orson Welles' production of Julius Caesar becomes attracted to a career-driven production assistant.

0.0

Drink and Be Merry

Jun 6, 2025

At a struggling New York dive bar in the days leading up to Christmas 2019, Chet, a beleaguered bartender in a state of extended arrested development, must balance caring for his misanthropic, aging regulars — who have nowhere else to go, and rely on him for far more than pouring drinks — with his naive desires to muster some Christmas spirit.

6.4

Water Drops on Burning Rocks

Mar 15, 2000

In 1970s Germany, Léopold, a 50-year-old businessman, picks up and seduces 20-year-old Franz, who swiftly moves into his apartment. The dynamic between them intensifies with the sudden arrival of their ex-girlfriends.

6.7

Pollock

Sep 6, 2000

In August of 1949, Life Magazine ran a banner headline that begged the question: "Jackson Pollock: Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?" The film is a look back into the life of an extraordinary man, a man who has fittingly been called "an artist dedicated to concealment, a celebrity who nobody knew." As he struggled with self-doubt, engaging in a lonely tug-of-war between needing to express himself and wanting to shut the world out, Pollock began a downward spiral.

6.1

Bug

Feb 21, 2007

In Oklahoma, Agnes, a lonely waitress living in an isolated and dilapidated roadside motel, meets Peter, a quiet and mysterious man with whom she establishes a peculiar relationship.

6.3

Brideshead Revisited

Jul 25, 2008

Befriended by aristocrat Sebastian Flyte, Oxford student Charles Ryder finds that the power and privilege experienced by the family is seductive. On a visit to the ancestral home, Brideshead, he falls in love with his friend's sister, Julia. However, as his ties to the Flytes deepen, Ryder finds himself at odds with their strong Roman Catholicism.

5.8

Dalecarlians

Dec 17, 2004

Mia returns from Stockholm to her parents' home in a small town in Dalecarlia (Dalarna) to celebrate her father's 70th birthday. Her elder sisters Eivor and Gunilla welcome her, but their different lifestyles prevent them from really communicating. The tension builds, and the party that should be a celebration turns out to be a turning point for the family and their friends

5.5

Child of the Danube

May 15, 1950

Marika is a cheerful girl who lives on the Danube aboard an old barge she inherited from her father. She works as a waitress in her aunt's inn, entertaining the guests with singing and dancing. Her greatest dream is to save enough money to repair the old barge and sail down the Danube. One day, she meets three young artists, Georg, Oskar, and Christoph, who all fall in love with her. Together, they put on an open-air revue and raise the necessary money. And with Georg, Marika is lucky in love.

4.3

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Dec 6, 1976

An alcoholic ex-football player drinks his days away, having failed to come to terms with his sexuality and his real feelings for his football buddy who died after an ambiguous accident. His wife is crucified by her desperation to make him desire her: but he resists the affections of his wife. His reunion with his father—who is dying of cancer—jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son.

4.0

Fragmentary

Oct 21, 2019

Ben Sanderson believes he can travel to an alternate reality when he drinks alcohol, to see the love of his life, who was brutally murdered in a home invasion two years prior. As Ben starts to get a hold of his new found ability, a new threat surfaces that may kill him before he can seek the truth.

5.9

The Riot Club

Sep 19, 2014

Two first-year students at Oxford University join a secret society and learn that their reputations can be made or destroyed over the course of one evening.

6.4

Company

Dec 10, 1996

Set in modern upper-crust Manhattan, an exploration of love and commitment as seen through the eyes of a charming perpetual bachelor questioning his single state and his enthusiastically married, slightly envious friends.