Which of these is your personal favorite? Joe: I like marital dysfunction the most. The top of the show is Brick passively hating Maggie and Maggie aggressively longing after Brick. And while that seems tragic, it becomes funny. Of course in this script, in the s, that brutality is usually directed from men towards women.
But towards anybody, when handled deftly by writer and actor, I find it to be hysterical. I think those types of barbs are so revealing. So, yeah, marital discord is my favorite of all the friction in the show. Is he homophobic? Is his marriage to Maggie a sham? In the s, when this play was first produced, even in the s when Williams gave it a major revision , the idea of bisexualism was not something that everybody thought of as a possibility.
That said, the script supports a hot and heavy attraction between Brick and Maggie. But for Brick to understand that he had the same impulses with Skipper as he has for Maggie makes him hate himself.
Brick hates gays and therefore hates himself. Q: As an actor, how do you get into the character of Brick? What are your starting points? Joe: With Jimmy, director James Donadio we go to the table and work out the rhythm of the scenes before we get on our feet. Rhythm and pace are so important to this play. But when it comes to the character choices for Brickβ¦. Does that familiarity make it easier to take on a difficult role?
Joe: Oh, yes. We were coworkers who had an affair. Curkrowicz and she played Catherine Holly. And we have experience playing repressed sexuality together. We actually won an awardβKate and I.
