By Vicki Paris Goodman
Arts & Entertainment Editor
It’s amazing how a random unforeseen element can render what was more-or-less tolerable yesterday completely unacceptable today.
In the case of William Inge’s classic drama Picnic, that element is a man who emits more pheromones than a pack of wolves in heat. Young, virile and utterly physical, Hal Carter (Eddie Perez Teran) is just passing through a small Kansas town in the early 1950s. Although the town’s women are all a bit restless with the dearth of options their locale affords them, they have endured their lot with apparent equanimity. That is, until Hal enters the picture, upsetting what turns out to have been a house of cards vulnerable to the slightest breeze.
The beautiful 18-year-old Madge (Kate Woodruff) intends to marry the upstanding young Alan (Shane Cullum), whose future is indeed promising. Madge now realizes there may be a more enticing alternative. Schoolmarm Rosemary (Katherine Prenovost), who outwardly prides herself on her hard-earned independence, discovers self-sufficiency isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Even the town’s older women indulge in the age-inappropriate “flight of fancy” where Hal is concerned.
Michael Ross directs this fine production, which benefits from Inge’s first-class structure and dialogue but is loaded with difficult subtleties of both timing and emotional intensity. Against a backdrop of an anticipated evening picnic, the tension builds slowly until repressed sexuality and expectation know no further containment.
Rosemary explodes with desire and frustration that allows no room for patience or reasonability. Madge makes a tough, even reckless, choice where no other options were truly viable. Think about it. How often are we asked to consider that the only option is a poor one? Not very, and that is part of what makes Picnic so compelling.
In other sub-plots, Hal and Alan have a benevolent history that can’t help turning sour. Hal’s a bad boy trying to be good but has no idea how to get there. And Madge’s younger sister Millie (Hayley Jackson) fights her own inner demons as she easily beats Madge in talent and smarts, but could never hope to be her equal in beauty. Jackson does a wonderful job as Millie.
Woodruff makes Madge an accessible beauty, admirably honest, and possessing a keen insight into her own inadequacies. She is equally in tune with the struggles of others. Never in a hurry to rush off to “dress for the ball,” she is the ultimate observer.
Prenovost, whose Rosemary suffers from feminism’s less positive effects about twenty years early, reaches into the viewer’s soul to touch seeds of insecurity which may have been dormant for decades.
Cullum’s Alan is a decent guy who’s done everything expected of him and deserves better than the betrayal of his old friend Hal and his girl Madge. On the other hand, this betrayal is inevitable, and maybe even for the best.
The other outstanding portrayal by a cast member is that of Mitchell Nunn, as Rosemary’s boyfriend Howard, who is inadvertently caught in the crossfire. Nunn is simply a fine actor, artlessly convincing as a man who surprises us against all odds by doing the right thing.
Teran possesses so much of the physical presence required to play Hal that his lesser ability to persuasively deliver his lines proves a small detriment to the overall production.
Able performances are also given by Geraldine Fuentes, Jeff Rice, Martha Duncan, Rozanne Martinez and Anne Kate Moehler.
Kudos to the entire cast for valiantly putting up with an unsophisticated and insensitive audience, many of whom broke into laughter at the most sobering moments of the performance.
Whenever the Long Beach Playhouse produces a classic, it is an opportunity for audiences to see the best that theater has to offer. This almost flawless production of Picnic is no exception.
Picnic continues on the Long Beach Playhouse Mainstage through May 3. General admission tickets are $22; $20 for seniors. Student tickets are $12 on Fridays and Saturdays with valid student ID. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with Sunday matinees on April 6, 13, 20 and 27 at 2 p.m.
Call (562) 494-1014 for reservations and information. Tickets are also available online at www.lbph.com.
