STAGE REVIEW : Despite Good Intentions, This ‘Cat’ Stumbles

Eastern Boys Productions’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” has a few things recommending it: Walter Brown’s direction occasionally finds the nerves in Tennessee Williams’ tale of domestic Southern discomfort, and Deidre West has her moments as the simmering, desperate Maggie.

Then there’s the production’s charitable aspect--a dollar will be trimmed from the small admission price for anyone bringing a canned good for the homeless.

But despite the good intentions, this “Cat” ultimately stumbles. Brown’s approach is respectful but imprecise; the hissing eroticism of Williams’ drama either becomes muted or is not fully explored. The pacing is too erratic to sustain us through many of the crucial turns, and the acting is not as sensitive as it should be to “Cat’s” layered subtexts.

We do get a pretty clear idea of what’s going on, at least on the surface. Brown delineates the struggle between beautiful Maggie the Cat and her deadened, alcoholic husband Brick. We understand that their problems, mostly sexual, are somehow braided into his uniquely personal relationship with Skipper, a football buddy who committed suicide.

Brown also digs somewhat into the black roots of corrupt power that lead to patriarch Big Daddy’s riches, and the family’s nasty fight for control of his empire. The key elements are pretty much there.

The failure comes in the shading. More has to be communicated about the kind of perverse partnership that Maggie and Brick now have, and how things got to that point. Big Mama talks about a marriage going on the rocks and the rocks being in bed; we need more of a sense of why this particular bedroom is a stony shoal. Williams’ writing puts nuance into Brick’s involvement with Skipper, and we don’t get all of it here.

Even Big Daddy, one of the stage’s great symbols of selfish appetite, too often has a shallowness that belies the character.

As Maggie, West keeps us interested. With her fidgety in-heat anxiety, this is a more vulnerable, more self-conscious Maggie than most. But that’s all right--there’s strength as well. West does have problems, especially early on, with the lousy acoustics at Santa Ana City Hall’s Annex theater. All those feathery Southern vowels just get absorbed; she needs to speak up.

Glen Meek’s Brick is relatively quiet and underplayed. It’s good to see the character held back, away from the bathetic. But there are parts missing. He’s unfathomable--sullenness is not enough. A sharper picture of Brick’s anger is called for, and his heartache--over Skipper, and over what his life with Maggie has become--needs to be expressed more forcefully.

On opening night Friday, director Brown filled in for Robert Flyer as Big Daddy and was reasonably proficient. (The cast change was not explained.) The slight Brown, however, lacks the physical presence and dominating persona usually associated with the role; he instead gave Big Daddy a weaselly self-absorption that wasn’t always convincing.

Big Mama, on the other hand, was given a persuasive reading by Sheri Savage, a talented and imposing actress.

As the arena for all this familial mendacity (a word that ends up being “Cat’s” mantra), the uncredited set of Maggie’s and Brick’s bedroom tends to sprawl over the large stage. This creates blocking problems for Brown, who doesn’t always have his actors in the best positions to interact.

‘CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF’

An Eastern Boys Production of Tennessee Williams’ play. Directed by Walter Brown. With Walter Brown, Robert Flyer, Sheri Savage, Glen Meek, Deidre West, Steve Scholl, Betsy Fernandez, George Robinson and Roosevelt Blankenship Jr. Technical director Marcus Blankenship. Plays Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. through Aug. 19 at the City Hall Annex theater, 23 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana. Tickets: $3 ($2 with a canned food donation). (714) 998-2199.