The UVic Phoenix Theatre’s production of William Inge’s Picnic is exactly what you would expect to experience at a family picnic: some laughs, some awkwardness, and lots of family drama.
Picnic is a story of young love, ambition, and the classic yearnings of the human heart, all set in one location over a 24-hour period. From schoolteachers who don’t want to be alone to jealous sisters vying for male attention, universal truths are touchingly exposed, despite perpetuating stereotypes of the day, like the role of women, no-good boys, and meddlesome mothers.
This Pulitzer Prize-winning drama is exquisitely depicted on the rickety porches of 1950’s small-town Kansas. On the last day of summer, a young drifter jumps off the train and into the hearts of the town women, causing trouble, heartache, and drunkenness amongst neighbours, boyfriends, and family. Madge Owens, “the pretty one,” is sick of being only pretty, and her younger sister, Millie (“the smart one”) is also tired of being pigeonholed. In climactic moments of passionate demands and a fist fight, questions are asked of the characters that the audience in turn asks themselves: “What can you do with the love that you feel? Where is there you can take it?”
Although the script doesn’t allow for realistic relationships between couples and it doesn’t explain what had happened in the past, the cast was strong for collegiate theatre. Exceptional performances are given by Julie Forrest as the strong and witty Flo Owens, whose history you only wanted to know more about; Hayley McCurdy as Madge Owens, who performed a very convincing dance number with shirtless Jenson Kerr (playing Hal Carter), and Dallas Ashby, who plays Helen Potts, the neighbour across the road.
All in all, through the play’s examination of self-worth and the archetypes of the pretty one, the smart one, the rich one, and the reckless one, the audience learns what it means to break out of predetermined roles.
Picnic
Until February 22
Phoenix Theatre, UVic
phoenixtheatres.ca