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Picnic
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The play takes place on Labor day Weekend in the joint back yards of two middle-aged widows. The one house belongs to Flo Owens, who lives there with her two maturing daughters, Madge and Millie, and a boarder who is a spinster school teacher. The other house belongs to Helen Potts, who lives with her elderly and invalid mother. Into this female atmosphere comes a young
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Paperback, 77 pages
Published
January 1st 1998
by Dramatists Play Service
(first published October 1st 1953)
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Probably the most "American" play I've ever read. The small town, the proper way to act, the outsider who is despicable yet irresistible: it's all here. Makes you feel so nostalgic you'll hum Souza, even though Inge is pointing out how deluded our perfect American dream lives really are.
If Tennessee Williams and Flannery O'Connor had a love child, it'd be this play. Streetcar meets Temple of the Holy Ghost.
Really cool female characters!! We love Inge
good dynamics between all the romantic relationships, as well as the familial aspect of Flo wanting to protect her children. decent writing, somewhat interesting plot. it'll be quite an experience to play Flo in a reader's theatre production at school
End of summer, the weekend before new school year and a fresh romance in the making.
Inge's play starts with an idyllic morning set in the shared backyard of two middle class houses that is about to be disrupted by the arrival of a young man - Hal. The seemingly perfect relationships are tested and exposed with Hal's bragging nature and inability to stick to a job. Inge's play is anything but romanticized; it in fact explores the complicated relationship the women in the play, share. Be it the ...more
Inge's play starts with an idyllic morning set in the shared backyard of two middle class houses that is about to be disrupted by the arrival of a young man - Hal. The seemingly perfect relationships are tested and exposed with Hal's bragging nature and inability to stick to a job. Inge's play is anything but romanticized; it in fact explores the complicated relationship the women in the play, share. Be it the ...more
I had the pleasure of not only reading this play multiple times this year, but also performing it for exam plays at my school this year. This is a play full of vibrant life exposed by the beautiful use of the English language by William Inge.
Easily the worst play I've ever read. This won a Pulitzer Prize for what - most asinine dialogue ever written?
Picnic is a 1953 play by William Inge. The play was premiered at the Music Box Theatre, Broadway, on 19 February 1953 in a Theatre Guild production, directed by Joshua Logan, which ran for 477 performances. The original cast featured Ralph Meeker, Eileen Heckart, Arthur O'Connell, Janice Rule, Reta Shaw, Kim Stanley and Paul Newman. Inge won the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the work, and Logan received a Tony Award for Best Director. The play also won the New York Drama Critics' Circle
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Apr 22, 2018
Jessica
rated it
liked it
Recommended to Jessica by:
peripheral WPL Wed book club
Shelves:
play
I was reluctant to pick this one up on the heels of Bus Stop (which rather upset me), but I'm glad I did. Although there are still elements that could be construed as disturbing in the right light, really this seems like a much more "wholesome" play about young love and mistakes and less about predators and prey.
As a read, it's fine; quick, interesting, well-developed characters. But it's easy to see that this would shine on stage in a way that just doesn't translate via a solo reading.
I think ...more
As a read, it's fine; quick, interesting, well-developed characters. But it's easy to see that this would shine on stage in a way that just doesn't translate via a solo reading.
I think ...more
The play responsible for me quitting my job as a stage manager in college. Pointless, and completely irrelevant trash. No real expression of anything, just characters rambling on about nothing. Always hate when people jump on the bandwagon of some piece of "art" and say it's great because they've been conditioned to say it's great by other so-called experts. Then, without really analyzing it for themselves, they say it's great too and think they've become individual and thus superior to the rest
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I’ve been meaning to read this play for so long and I’m so glad that I finally got around to it. It was a lovely, small town American play that I enjoyed reading. It took me less than two hours to read so it was a nice, quick read too. I wish I could see this on stage. I wish I’d seen the New York version starring Sebastian Stan too.
Aug 22, 2019
Connor
added it
“I never knew what the feeling was. Why didn’t someone tell me?”
A good play with small ambitions that is almost exclusively just about love.
A good play with small ambitions that is almost exclusively just about love.
Southern, dramatic, fantastic, holy.
Read it on Labor Day. As one does. For book club. With special guest actor perspective.
5 stars
- Ms. Jenn
- Ms. Jenn
I wanna play Rosemary sO bad.
Mar 24, 2017
Abigail Oldham
added it
A classic; my forever favorite play.
I would write you a review of this play, but instead I wrote a thesis on it. And I'm almost certain that no one on Goodreads wants to read that here.
After researching the author I found that he was extremely interesting and I can actually relate to him in many ways. William Inge is a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and novelist. He won his Pulitzer for this 3-act play. He focuses on the struggles women had to face in the 1950s in particular. He is able to relate and empathize with women because he grew up surrounded by women. He had an absent father so he has a lot of respect for women. He was also gay, giving him an even greater
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Thank you little Americana butter sandwich, thank you.
I am auditioning for this play. I had to look at the email twice to see that they really want me to audition for the 16-year-old younger, uglier, smarter sister, Millie. It's a great role, don't get me wrong, but... 16? I guess I did just play a 16-year-old murderer...
I was surprised how much I liked this play. I'm still not so sure why. Maybe it's the whole porch culture thing that I can very easily and viscerally relate to. That and the ...more
I am auditioning for this play. I had to look at the email twice to see that they really want me to audition for the 16-year-old younger, uglier, smarter sister, Millie. It's a great role, don't get me wrong, but... 16? I guess I did just play a 16-year-old murderer...
I was surprised how much I liked this play. I'm still not so sure why. Maybe it's the whole porch culture thing that I can very easily and viscerally relate to. That and the ...more
This play would be so fun to direct! Nuanced female roles. Maybe I enjoyed reading it so much because it explores themes I'm currently pondering.... like the nature of beauty, what it gets you and where it leaves you. My only criticism is, sometimes the characters' motivations seem quixotic. I mean, really, would any woman marry a man who said to her, after she asks him, “Well—you got to give me time to think it over.” !! I guess that's desperation for you. Anyway, this is such a very insightful
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This is our high school's fall play, so I thought I'd read the text, having previously seen the movie starring William Holden, Kim Novak, and Rosalind Russell. I couldn't imagine teens would grasp the longing and sexual tension of the characters Hal, Madge, and Rosemary, so I thought I'd see if the play was different from the movie--nope! Am I looking forward to this performance? Hesitantly, yes. We have excellent student actors and a brand new drama teacher, so this has potential to be
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Although I found some nice topics in the drama (society repressing sexuality, strict rules of behaviour, all of it mostly being fake, of course, and thus creating unfulfilled lives), I didn't find the dialogues deep enough to dig into the characters and their relations in a more interesting way, although there was a lot of potential...
And also I couldn't believe some of their actions (Howard marrying Rosemary after what happened the night before, Madge's departure etc...) - I felt like Inge ...more
And also I couldn't believe some of their actions (Howard marrying Rosemary after what happened the night before, Madge's departure etc...) - I felt like Inge ...more
I love this. If only for Rosemary's scenes and the different approaches to marriage the whole way through. I don't know why I'm inclined to think Alan is secretly a jerk... I think it's because I really don't think the two should have been together so I'm just on Madge's side. Who knows. I'd love to break this deceptively simple play down sometime. Fantastic woman personalities. We never go to the picnic.
Can't figure out WHY this is back on Broadway right now ( closing soon). It costs SO much to produce a Broadway play. This time piece simply doesn't resonate with me or this age. What am I missing about this?
I like the characterization and the evolution of the plot, but the plot itself seems dated to me. I enjoy it from a historical perspective, (i.e. the time the action was set in, '50s), and the dialogue and character relationships are engaging. 7 Women, 4 Men.
One of my favorite plays -- definitely top of Inge's work for me. The characters and their histories are soft, unspoken, yet so rich and full. I love the work available for actors, and I love the sweet, simple storyline of a stranger coming to town and sending everyone in new directions.
Aug 20, 2007
Mary Tuley
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
Afficiononados of theatre and romance.
Not much happens, as in most plays, but the characters' lives are definitely touched by that nothingness and their inability to do anything about it. It seems to me that they're mostly "about" to do something. I do love the beauty of the play's imagery, though.
It's a very cute and easy to read story. I finished it within a day (about 3 hours because I had to take notes of it for my project). There are only a few characters and the scene does not really move around.
Surprisingly dated, perhaps significantly in that it deals with the position of women in the '50s. Have never seen the movie -- must do so.
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William Motter Inge was an American playwright and novelist, whose works typically feature solitary protagonists encumbered with strained sexual relations. In the early 1950s, he had a string of memorable Broadway productions, and one of these, Picnic, earned him a Pulitzer Prize. With his portraits of small-town life and settings rooted in the American heartland, Inge became known as the
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