‘Mendacity is the system we live in. Liquor is one way out. Death is the other.’ — Brick

There’s something rotten in the state of Mississippi, where Big Daddy’s family gathers to celebrate his birthday. In fact, almost everything and everybody is at least decaying, if not downright rotten.

It’s Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, on the boards in a stunning production at Cygnet Theatre through June 17.

Cat is a story of disillusionment, dissolution and disgust in the family of Big Daddy (Jim Chovick), who reminds the family often that he owns “2,800 acres of the richest land this side of the River Nile.”

Maggie (Jessica John) and Brick (Francis Gercke) – young, gorgeous and desperately unhappy – have gathered for Big Daddy’s birthday celebration along with Brick’s brother, Gooper (Tom Stephenson), his wife, Mae (Melissa Fernandes), and their passel of “no-neck monsters,” as Maggie puts it.

But it’s lying that keeps this family going. First off, they’ve told the family patriarchs that Big Daddy’s only medical problem is a spastic colon, when in fact he is dying of cancer and this will be his last birthday celebration.

In other deceptions, Gooper and Mae do what they think they must to inherit the property; Maggie pretends (at least to the others) that things are fine between her and Brick; Big Daddy pretends to like Big Mama (Sandra Ellis-Troy).

Brick is the only honest one: He does not even feign affection for Maggie, nor concern for anyone else in the family. He is busy brooding about the death of his best friend, Skipper, and losing himself more and more in the liquor bottle. His biggest problem at the moment is a huge hip-high cast for a broken foot, which means he must work harder to ignore Maggie, since physical escape is more difficult.

This is a taut, riveting production, brilliantly directed by Sean Murray, who has assembled a stellar cast for one of the best productions I’ve seen of the play. John’s Maggie is terrific, alternately alluring, amusing, infuriating and pathetic as she schemes, begs, wheedles, cajoles and yells in a fruitless attempt to reach her emotionally absent husband.

Gercke’s Brick is spectacular – controlled in the first act, a coiled spring waiting to be released. And when he finally does explode in his second-act scene with Big Daddy, it’s devastating.

Chovick’s Big Daddy is a disquieting portrait of a man who in the eyes of his family has outlived his usefulness, but takes every advantage of the old dictum that he who has the gold rules.

Ellis-Troy, who plays mouthy old women better than anyone around (remember her Grandma Gladys in Lonergan’s Waverly Gallery at New Village Arts earlier this year?), is just right as Big Mama, the overbearing matriarch who is just as unsuccessful as Maggie at getting Brick to stop drinking, or even to communicate with the family.

Kudos to Murray, whose sprawling set takes the entire space allotted and looks just slightly frayed around the edges; and also to lighting designer Eric Lotze and sound designer M. Scott Grabau for particularly fine work.

There’s a new cat in town, and you won’t have to go to the zoo to see her. Miss this one at your own peril.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof plays through July 10 at Cygnet Theatre. Shows Thurs.-Sat. at 8:00 p.m.; Sun. matinee at 2:00 p.m.; Sun. evening performances on June 26 and July 10 at 7:00 p.m. For tickets, call (619) 337-1525 ext. 3.

Most people try to do the right thing, but is right always a black-or-white concept? When, if ever, can circumstances change the definition?

Playwright Kenneth Lonergan is known for realistic dialogue and identifiable characters. A screenwriter as well, he is probably best known for his Oscar-nominated screenplay for You Can Count on Me. He also penned the screenplay for Analyze This.

Lonergan’s Lobby Hero posits four people who move in and out of the lobby of a Manhattan apartment building, and presents a morality play about right and wrong.

Happy-go-lucky Jeff (Lamb’s Players regular Nick Cordileone) works the graveyard shift at the building, where his sleepiness has led him to devise what he thinks is a clever and foolproof way to sleep on the job without being noticed.

Jeff’s inflexible boss, William (J. August Richards), a straight-arrow, ambitious guy with unshakable (well, nearly) ideas about right and wrong, visits nightly. This night he castigates Jeff for his lackadaisical approach to work, recommending a motivational book and passing on the friendly warning that Jeff will be fired if caught sleeping on the job.

The other two characters are cops – old veteran Bill (Mark Espinoza) and his new partner, rookie Dawn (Lauren Lovett). Bill is bucking for a gold shield (promotion to detective); Dawn is trying to win her chops as an officer.

Bill has acquired the swagger of a seasoned cop, along with the confidence that his on-the-job social visits to 22J will not be disclosed. Bill has told Dawn he visits his friend Jim; when Jeff’s loose lips divulge the information that 22J is inhabited by a woman with “a lot of boyfriends,” Dawn is drawn into Bill’s web of secrecy.

William gets word that his brother wants him to provide an alibi for a robbery and murder he may or may not be involved in, which serves as touchstone for an examination of ethical issues. Dilemmas pile up for each character, but the basic question under consideration is this: How much does it take to get a person to sell out another, or to violate his own ethical code?

Lobby Hero, directed by Sledgehammer’s former artistic director Kirsten Brandt, displays the naturalistic dialogue for which Lonergan is known, his characters talking and talking over each other like real folks.

It’s good to see a play about issues for a change, and Lonergan and the cast do well by the male characters. Cordileone is terrific as the man with a casual approach to work who finds himself inadvertently caught up in the maelstrom.

Richards’ and Espinoza’s mirror-image characters (even sharing a name) carry the weight of the ethical discussion – William the stiff moralist, caught between family allegiance and his own moral code; Bill, whose moral sense has been tempered by experience and desire.

Lovett’s role is more problematic, as Lonergan has chosen to portray her inexperience and rookie status by giving her actions that seem to me just dumb, prompting the question of her function in the play (though she is given her own ethical problems to deal with). But maybe I’m just an old feminist grouch.

Lobby Hero poses problems without giving solutions, which makes it worth seeing – and discussing – as an idea play, despite an annoying sound design, some inexplicable lighting events and the character of Dawn.

Lobby Hero plays through June 26 at the Old Globe’s Cassius Carter Centre Stage. Shows Thurs.-Sat. at 8:00 p.m.; Tues., Wed. and Sun. at 7:00 p.m.; matinees Sat. and Sun. at 2:00 p.m. For tickets, call (619) 23-GLOBE.