Theatre
Picnic
William Inge · 1953
Synopsis
On the morning of Labor Day, in a small Kansas town, Hal Carter, a drifter who has climbed down from a freight train, does a few odd jobs for Mrs. Potts in exchange for breakfast. He has come to see a former university classmate, Alan Seymour, the son of a wealthy family, to find work. In the neighbouring house lives Flo Owens, a single mother, with her two daughters: Madge, the beauty, whom Alan is courting, and Millie, the younger one, who reads; a schoolteacher, Rosemary Sydney, lodges with them and keeps her friend Howard at a distance. Everyone is preparing the evening picnic.
Context
The play comes from the boarding house run by the author's mother, where three schoolteachers lodged when he was a child, and from an earlier series of scenes, Front Porch. Opened on 19 February 1953 at the Music Box Theatre, directed by Joshua Logan, with Ralph Meeker, Janice Rule, Kim Stanley and Eileen Heckart, it marks Paul Newman's Broadway debut and runs for 477 performances. Logan secured a happier ending than the one Inge had written; in 1962 the author published his own version, under another title. Logan's film came out in 1955.
Who it is for
Three acts on a single set, over twenty-four hours. No published French translation.
Prizes and reception
Pulitzer Prize 1953 and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award; Brooks Atkinson praised an original and honest play.
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