10 - Seeking direction

Summary

In 1955, Williams published his now notorious “reading version” of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which contained two versions of the third act. The one that Williams called the “Broadway Version” was developed in collaboration with director Elia Kazan and the other participants in the play's original production. Williams also included an earlier version from one of his pre-production scripts. In a “Note of Explanation” that introduced the “Broadway Version,” Williams went out of his way to explain how helpful Kazan's advice had been to him over the years. At the same time, he intimated that the changes he had felt forced to make in order to have Kazan direct Cat on a Hot Tin Roof had violated his sense of artistic integrity. Noting the influence that “a powerful and highly imaginative director” could have upon the development of a play, both before and during production, Williams asserted that he and Elia Kazan had “enjoyed the advantages and avoided the dangers of this highly explosive relationship because of the deepest mutual respect for each other's creative function: we have worked together three times with a phenomenal absence of friction between us and each occasion has increased the trust.”