Picnic (Masterplots II: Drama, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: William Inge
- First Published: 1953
- Type of Plot: Psychological
- Time of Work: The early 1950’s
- Setting: A small town in Kansas
- Principal Characters: Hal Carter, Madge Owens, Millie Owens, Flo Owens, Alan Seymour, Rosemary Sydney, Howard Bevans, Helen Potts
- Genres: Domestic realism, Drama, Psychological drama
- Subjects: 1950’s, Values, North America or North Americans, Self-discovery, United States or Americans, Love or romance, Sex or sexuality, Midwest, Small-town life, Kansas, Holidays
- Locales: Kansas
The Play
Picnic begins on a bright “sunlit” stage revealing the porches of two small houses in a small Kansas town on the late summer morning of Labor Day. All the action of the play takes place within one twenty-four-hour period. This neighborhood, like the entire town, is poised for the last summer holiday of the season, culminating in the annual Labor Day picnic before the beginning of the school year. The houses are tidy but unremarkable, except that their occupants are all women, young and old, each of whom has been seared—or scarred—in one way or another by...
[The entire page is 3015 words long]
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