The Picnic

This weekend Stephanie and I saw "The Picnic" which was written by William Inge. I had actually read this play and it was fun seeing a production of it. I asked for some classic Americana and got it with this but once again have mixed feelings on the themes and concepts presented.

"The Picnic" was shown at the Coronado Playhouse which is on the East side of the Island and shows off a beautiful view of downtown San Diego. I got the impression that the playhouse was a temperary structure as the head of the playhouse mentioned something about moving back to their original location. It did have caberet style seating which was nice. Also, the hot actor in this one was Jeff Lippold who played Hal so Stephanie got the eye candie for this one. It didn't help that he spent most of the play with his shirt off.

A classic 50’s Romance

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 man named Hal Carter, whose animal vitality seriously upsets the entire group. Hal is a most interesting character, a child of parents who ignored him, self-conscious of his failings and his position behind the eight ball. Flo is sensitively wary of temptations for her daughters. Madge, bored with being only a beauty, sacrifices her chances for a wealthy marriage for the excitement Hal promises. Her sister, Millie, finds her balance for the first time through the stranger's brief attention. And the spinster is stirred to make an issue out of the dangling courtship that has brightened her life in a dreary, minor way.

Once again problems with the them. "Burn This" was almost a modern version of "The Picnic." Both plays were both about passion and passion seems to triumph. Both plays had a bad boy and a nice girl and the nice girl always resists the badboy until the very end and they run off together. Of course these plays seem to conveniently end with the two getting together, they never show the part where the two drive each other crazy.

Besides the overall theme of the play it was overall fun but not great. The acting was good and the actors had the characters down. One strange thing was Ben Morales, who plays Alan kept getting red in the face like he was really mad.

So overall a good time at an average play. Still having a blast though and love going to all these interesting playhouses.