The Arctic Playhouse presents “Picnic” by William Inge and directed by Karen Besson. In 1953, when the play premiered on Broadway, Picnic won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. Picnic explores themes of love, family, sexuality, repression, rites of passage, disappointment, and the complexities of human relationships, not to mention the consequences of following one’s heart in a small Kansas town.
It’s Labor Day Weekend in the joint backyards of two middle-aged widows. One house belongs to Flo Owens, who lives there with her two maturing daughters, Madge and Millie, and their boarder Rosemary, a spinster school teacher. Flo is protective of her daughters and wary of Hal’s influence. The neighboring house belongs to Helen Potts, who cares for her elderly and invalid mother. This female energy is disrupted when a hot young drifter named Hal arrives and his alluring spirited vitality stirs the group. The product of dismissive parents, Hal is an interesting character, albeit self-conscious of his failings and his position in life. Madge, eager to be more than just the pretty girl in town and drawn in by Hal’s charisma and energy, sacrifices her prospect for a wealthy and secure marriage for the excitement a substandard life with Hal promises. Her tomboy sister, Millie finds balance for the first time through the stranger’s attentions (even though she also crushes on her sister’s boyfriend Alan). Meanwhile, Rosemary questions the dangling courtship that has brightened her otherwise dreary life.
The setting, by Lloyd Felix, is simply two back porches with no set changes. It’s a bit ironic that, while the play is called Picnic, there are no actual picnic scenes. When the different characters dance together and get to know one another better, the conflicts begin. As Millie cheerfully gets twirled around, happiness brings with it a sense of freedom. Let the picnic begin!
“Love and family. Letting go. The innate power of physical beauty. William Inge believed the act of living was the search for and maintenance of our own identity,” says Besson. “Hopeful widows, idealistic teenagers, embittered spinsters, restless wanderers. Inge gathers under his roof of repression and beauty a group of people who will go to any lengths to explore the quest of self-discovery. As I watch the members of this small Kansas town letting go of their various social differentials, unhappy beauty, poverty and affluence, intelligence and vapidity, I am reminded of the words of Thich Naht Hahn. ‘Birth and death are only a game of hide-and-seek, and letting go is one of the highest practices.’”
The play is very fun and funny. Even when things seem dire, there’s a smile to be had. This has much to do with the cohesion of the hilarious cast. Members include Nancy Vitulli (Mrs. Helen Potts), Paul Simmons (Hal Carter), Addison Magiera (Millie Owens), Wally Driscoll (Bomber Gutzel), Alyssa Oliver (Madge Owens), Karen Gail Kessler (Flo Owens), Lee Rush (Rosemary Sydney), Benjamin Davis (Alan Seymour), Lynda DiStefano (Irma Kronkite), Emma Kerr (Christine Schoenwalder), and Paul Oliver (Howard Bevins). You’ll surely enjoy the highs and lows of this great production!
The Arctic Playhouse presents Picnic through April 13th. For more information, visit www.thearcticplayhouse.com.
