Dark themes of loneliness, smashed dreams and sexual frustration simmer beneath the illusory charm of small-town Americana in the Roundabout production of William Inge’s Picnic at the American Airlines Theater. Inge’s Come Back Little Sheba, Splendor in the Grass, Bus Stop and Picnic all resonate with the influences that formed his writing; small towns, aimlessness, family complications, the tug of restraint and yearning. With a commendable cast, director Sam Gold (Look Back in Anger) deftly pierces the mores and desires of ordinary people mindful of 1950’s Midwestern propriety.
It is a hot Labor Day morning in a small Kansas town. The summer is over, school starts the next day, and two neighboring women chat idly, peeling eggs and mixing salads for the afternoon picnic. Helen Potts (Ellen Burstyn), a kindly, elderly woman cares for her invalid mother (only heard as the voice of Lizbeth Mackay). Her diversion lies in the family life of her neighbor, Flora Owens (Mare Winningham), the disenchanted mother of two teenage daughters, Madge and Millie. Abandoned by her husband, Flora’s own crushed fantasies are invested in beautiful Madge (Maggie Grace), who is dating the wealthy but flavorless, Alan (Ben Rappaport). Younger daughter, Millie, “the smart one,” is a sharp-tongued tomboy harboring her own private ambitions.
Elizabeth Marvel (Other Desert Cities) plays Flora’s boarder, Rosemary Sidney, who brashly claims that she is a happy “old-maid schoolteacher,” though secretly she fears she will live out her humdrum life without a man to care for her.
Suddenly, into this bastion of lonesome women, Hal (Sebastian Stan), struts in, a strapping, aimless drifter, shaking up the familiar milieu. Mrs. Potts hires him for some chores and later says, “I got so used to things as they were, everything so prim. And then he walked in, and it was different! He clomped through the place like he was still outdoors. There was a man in the place and it seemed good!” While the other women feign disinterest, they can’t take their eyes off Hal, showcasing his blatant masculinity and audacious boasting. It is Madge, however, jolted out of her lethargy, who catches Hal’s eye, and vice versa. Lust is in the air.
Beneath the braggadocio, Hal is a hunky loser with no direction. He has come to town to ask his old college buddy, Alan, Madge’s beau, for a job. Alan is willing to help, but the usual good-humored Labor Day camaraderie is threatened when Hal is invited to the picnic. Gathering at the Owens house, electricity buzzes in the evening air.
Rosemary’s boyfriend, storekeeper, Howard Bevens (Reed Birney), brings illegal liquor, and as the evening moves on, Hal and Madge begin to dance suggestively. Envious, Rosemary makes drunken advances toward Hal, and when he rebuffs her, she rails, "You think just 'cause you're young you can push people aside and not pay them any mind... But you won't stay young forever, didja ever thinka that?” Struck by the truth. Hal runs off, Madge follows and they don’t appear until the next morning.
The obvious suggestion of premarital sex continues as Howard takes Rosemary for a drive. When he brings her home later that night, Rosemary faces her desolate, solitary future. Desperately, she falls to her knees, begging Howard to marry her. Birney portrays the shaken Howard with persuasive subtlety. Elizabeth Marvel and Reed Birney effectively grasp the intensely needy interaction between frenetic Rosemary and the unsettled Howard. This is the emotional highlight of the play, almost uncomfortable to watch in its rawness.
As Hal, the bare-chested, buff Stan (Talk Radio) is an engaging bad-boy drifter and Maggie Grace (TV’s ”Lost”), a lovely but bland Madge wavering between safe, stagnant security as the town beauty or taking the risk of a romantic adventure. With a sweet impishness, Ellen Burstyn rounds out the optimism and the wisdom of Mrs. Potts, remembering making a similar decision herself. She relishes watching Madge and Hal’s mutual attraction.
As Flora, Mare Winningham remembers the man who once abandoned her, and she fears the same fate for her daughter. She scores in the shattering moment, watching her hopes dissipate when Madge leaves with her suitcase.
Director Sam Gold takes a traditional, straightforward approach to mine the undercurrents of lonely women and confused men. Andrew Lieberman has designed a folksy backyard set and Jane Cox sensitively shifts her lighting design to trace the hours, focusing from the yard into the kitchen and back again. David Zinn’s costumes are mindful of the era.
In 1953, Picnic won the Pulitzer Prize, the Outer Circle Award, the New York Drama Critics Award. It became a successful film in 1955 starring William Holden and Kim Novak, winning two Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. In the Roundabout Theater Company’s presentation, William Inge’s signature look-back at another era through a somewhat dusty window still resonates with the underbelly of small-town characters and their bittersweet humanity.
