The cast of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” combined their talents to heat up the stage to Southern summer temperatures, as they performed the sultry southern drama written by Tennessee Williams.

Presented by Sacramento State Theatre, the play emphasizing dramatic dialogue opened Oct. 12 at the Playwrights? Theatre.

Director Paul R. Waldo said that all went smooth on opening night.

“This is a seminary of students but it went pretty smooth tonight. Two of the main characters are just 19-years-old and I thought they did a good job,” Waldo said. The modernized version of the southern drama, which was originally a 1950?s play, is set in the bed ? sitting room of a plantation home in the Mississippi Delta.

The drama is a story about a rich Mississippi Delta family whose dysfunction seems to seep out and pour forth from the very first scene.

This hard-hitting drama is as intense as the south?s humidity on a mid-August day and a provocative delivery of dialogue by members of the cast draws the audience in throughout the entire play.

Jeffrey Lloyd Heatherly who played “Big Daddy,” the rich and fearless leader of this divided family, does a superb job of embellishing the audience when he tells it like it is in his powerful southern drawl, especially during his monologues.

Kelly Hurley, the actress who played Margaret, the frustrated wife of Brick, sizzled when she took center stage in her dramatic dialogue.

The handsome young Brick, “Big Daddy?s” son played by Christopher Ratti, reveals truths that cut into his family like a double-edged sword, while trying to drown his problems with liquor.

The story line called for a rich southern drawl and the cast did a decent job in accomplishing the task. The set design done by director Paul Waldo was authentically created, with attention to detail as shown by the use of crown molding along the ceiling and the French doors with arched windows and rich draperies.

Waldo is to be commended for both set design and directing.

If you?re in the mood for drama, you?ll find it in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”