There once was a time in the not so distant past that storytellers would gather around a fire and tell yarns of great adventure and suspect. The characters were complex and complete. The plot and back stories were vivid. The storytellers would tell their stories in their own way by allowing the story to just develop rather than have a set destination and mapped out storyline on how to get there. Stories were allowed to plot their own course and take their own time.



The art of storytelling is all but dead these days since car crashes, scenes of girls in hot pants and rapid-fire jokes have taken over the art form. With that backdrop of the state of storytelling, it is nice to see a theater stage a show in the old tradition.



Tacoma Little Theatre is staging Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams. This five-decades-old play has all the makings of the ancient storytelling craft.



The play in three acts dedicates a whole hour with just two people on the stage for any measurable amount of time. There are some tense emotional scenes, but not a sword fight or car chase to be seen.



Since this fine rag is distributed in some less-than-cultured venues, I’ll recap the show even though it makes its way into many high school literature classes these days. 



Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is the story of a man with troubles. Brick Pollitt (wonderfully played by Peter Punzi) is a former athlete who would rather wallow in what was than face the life ahead. It is his father’s birthday, a fact that escapes him. Big Daddy (Elliot Weiner) is dying of cancer while he is preparing to blow out his candles, so talk of death is in the air. Brick is the favored son, but not only has he visibly fallen into alcoholism, he also has failed to have children.



Those two factors might make his inheritance of the family’s massive plantation a matter of question since his brother Gooper (Bill Read) has children and at least an outwardly normal family life.



Toss in underlining sexual frustration Pollitt has over the loss of his former best friend and rumored lover and the story gets heady fairly quickly.



What makes this show work is not only the nuanced dialogue and the classic characters but the complexity of the whole affair.



That is where this play excels. Punzi’s portrayal of Pollitt is not the overpowering and violent character from the classic movie. He takes the character into areas that make him almost likable as his internal struggles with his closeted homosexuality bubbles to the surface.

His character is counter to that of his wife, Maggie (Stephanie Leeper). While Punzi is understated, Leeper is over the top and around the corner as the sex hungry Southern sexpot.



Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a classic tale about a life gone by and an internal struggle about what was and what could have been, runs in three acts spanning two and a half hours with two intermissions. The show is not for children since it has strong language and adult themes.



[Tacoma Little Theatre, through May 4, 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, $16-$20, 210 N. I St., Tacoma, 253.272.2481]