Picnic

i had never heard of this play (or author) before randomly seeing a performance 12 or 13 years ago. i was blown away by it, and am glad i finally got around to reading it. i'm not 100% sure it holds up because it's so full of social commentary, but for the time it is excellent. i don't think i would believe it was written by a man if i didn't know better. (for me, that's a compliment.) it talks so deeply about beauty and identity, and societal expectation. (the beautiful sister isn't thought of as a real person, but as a doll because she's so pretty, and she questions her own vitality because no one seems to see *her* at all. the less pretty sister, because she's not as pretty as madge, and possibly because she's younger, has more show more independence to be herself, but is also constantly being compared to someone she can't match. the teacher boarder who is past her prime but desperately wants to be married. the neighbor who takes care of her invalid mother who took her chance of "freedom" away years ago. and then, how freedom only comes to women by attaching themselves to a man in marriage.) it's quick and intelligent, and says a lot with so few words and pages. it's so sad and so real and just beautifully done.

(and it's somewhat possible that my reading is colored by how much i loved the performance i saw, back in the summer of 2006 or 2007. but i don't think that i remember enough to be attributing aspects of the live play to this one.)

"It doesn't hurt what names I call her! She's pretty, so names don't bother her at all! She's pretty, so nothing else matters."

"I don't care if you're real or not. You're the prettiest girl I ever saw." show less

this didn't resonate quite as loudly with me this time, although i still liked it quite a bit. it's such a short little play but really says so much, which i really appreciate. (he does put quite a bit of what the character is feeling in the stage directions, which maybe helps deepen the characterization a bit for me.) this time around, i thought a little more about hal and what inge might have been saying about him or about young men at that time. honestly he hadn't interested me that much before, as i had been so focused on all of the women and their stories and the messaging around their sad situations.

i know inge has talked about the humor in this play and in summer brave in particular, but i just find this so tragic. how madge is show more reduced to her looks, how millie isn't as pretty as madge and so isn't taken seriously (not that madge is - she is only her outer shell and nothing more), how rosemary is running out of time to get married and is so bitter about it all, how mrs potts had a literal afternoon of freedom and no more, how flo had to raise these girls on her own regretting her attempt at love and freedom. all of them stuck, all of them unable to make real change. and the constant reminder of that train whistle in the background, telling them there's a bigger world and other places to go.

as to hal, he is a sad character, too, but it feels more of his own doing. he's a player and an opportunist, but maybe part of that is not wanting to conform to the standards that this very restrictive society have set up. i'll have to give him more thought.

madge leaves at the end but to me this isn't a bid for freedom. she is following hal, who won't be where he said he would, and she will end up either destitute in tulsa or back at home having wrecked her chance at a better life. it will end very badly for her, in my mind. not that alan would have been a good choice either. he may have been wealthy and secure in the community, but he only saw her as a pretty girl, nothing more. i forgot that rosemary leaves to marry howard; in my memory he doesn't come back to wed her, but it's hard to imagine that's much of a happy ending for her, too. she does get married, but how much both of them are settling is sad.

this is still a powerful little play, and in its time i suspect it was quite the statement to make.

"A pretty girl doesn't have long -- just a few years. Then she's the equal of kings and she can walk out of a shanty like this and live in a palace with a doting husband who'll spend his life making her happy. ... Because once, once she was young and pretty. If she loses her chance then, she might as well throw all her prettiness away."

"It doesn't hurt what names I call her! She's pretty, so names don't bother her at all! She's pretty, so nothing else matters."

"I don't care if you're real or not. You're the prettiest girl I ever saw."

(3.75-4 stars)

from oct 2019:
i had never heard of this play (or author) before randomly seeing a performance 12 or 13 years ago. i was blown away by it, and am glad i finally got around to reading it. i'm not 100% sure it holds up because it's so full of social commentary, but for the time it is excellent. i don't think i would believe it was written by a man if i didn't know better. (for me, that's a compliment.) it talks so deeply about beauty and identity, and societal expectation. (the beautiful sister isn't thought of as a real person, but as a doll because she's so pretty, and she questions her own vitality because no one seems to see *her* at all. the less pretty sister, because she's not as pretty as madge, and possibly because she's younger, has more independence to be herself, but is also constantly being compared to someone she can't match. the teacher boarder who is past her prime but desperately wants to be married. the neighbor who takes care of her invalid mother who took her chance of "freedom" away years ago. and then, how freedom only comes to women by attaching themselves to a man in marriage.) it's quick and intelligent, and says a lot with so few words and pages. it's so sad and so real and just beautifully done.

(and it's somewhat possible that my reading is colored by how much i loved the performance i saw, back in the summer of 2006 or 2007. but i don't think that i remember enough to be attributing aspects of the live play to this one.)

"It doesn't hurt what names I call her! She's pretty, so names don't bother her at all! She's pretty, so nothing else matters."

"I don't care if you're real or not. You're the prettiest girl I ever saw." (4 stars) show less