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AT THE THEATRE By BROOKS ATKINSON New York Times (1923-Current file); Feb 20, 1953; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (1851-2009) pg. 14 AT .T:HE, The Cast Having one good play to his Pi~:~'St~g:la6y l~os~~~eeLo:~; ~n:;m~ : credit, William Inge now has an Ughtlng by Jo Mlelzlner; costumes by Mil other, "Picnic," put on at the dred Trebor; presente4 by the Theatre GuUd and Mr. Logan. At the MUSic Box. Music Box last evening, And mem Helen Potts. •..••.••••••••• , ••• Ruth McDevitt . orable though "Come Back, Little ~u;~~· ':::.:: :':::. :'::.:: :':.~JfJ1 rt!1!i:; • Sheba" was three seasons ago, Bomber ..........................M orrls Mn~yr Madge Owens ••••••••••••••••••••• JanIce Ru e "Picnic" is a notable improvement. ~~e~:r~ssldi:ieY .:: :::::::::::: :~~~i~ ~~~~~ Taking a group of commonplace Alan Seymour ..................P aul Newman people in a small ~ansas town on CIrhmrias tKinreo nSkclhteo en."w al.d.e.r. ..•.•.•.•.•.. E..l.Iz..a.b Reteht aW Sihlsaown a hot Labor Day just before school Howard Bevans .•...•.•..••.. Arthur O'Connell I opens,' Mr. Inge has made a rich and fundamental play o.ut of them that is tremendously moving in the I direction and acting are beautiful last act. In the first )act they .look1 also. Although Joshua Logan has commonplace, but they are people I staged D10re spectacular perfofD1- of strength and valor by the time ances, he has never staged one so Mr. Inge has finished dramatizing fine. Working like an associated them. artist he has helped sketch the en Everything is drowzily casual vironment with grace and good hu when the curtain goes up on a sun mor. When the mood gets serious baked yard shared by two famlies he stages the climax powerfully that have no men in them. Mrs. without losing the sunny mood of Owens, the neighbor on the left, the opening scenes. J'0 Mielziner in has two growing daughters and his most imaginative form has de she hopes to marry the prettiest signed a shabby. heat-drenched of them to the richest boy in town. small town yard that has an artis- But a braggart vagrant with a tic vitality of its o;vn. I huge. lanky bOdy strolls into the yard, and Mr. Inge's play begins to * * * come into focus. All the women The acting is superb. As the begin to take a new lease on life. cheap braggart. Ralph Meeker acts' Since Mr. Inge can write comedy from the inside out, never forget as well as drama, the first stir ting that the character has a valid rings among the girls and women ity of its own. Janice Rule gives are amusing. But "Picnic" is a a .lovely performance as the beau deadly serious play. Before it is tifUl maiden whose mind is unclear over, the vagrant with the loud but whose instincts are sound and mouth and the unsavory past has courageous. As a tom-boy with altered the whole landscape. What brains and artistic gifts. Kim Stan ever was unreal in the first scene ley gives a penetratint5 perform is brutally real in' the last act. ance that conveys the distinction Forces get loose that no one will a. as well as the gaucheries of dis ever again put under control. arming young lady. * * ,* Peggy Conklin as an anxious Mr. Inge knQWS his characters mother, Eileen Heckart as a school so well that you cannot distinguish teacher with a hunger for life and them from the· drama. Everything a knack for getting it. Paul New seems to progress under its own man as a eo lIege lad infatuated momentum once the characters are with a. pretty face, Ruth McDevitt defined and th(l situ~tion created. as a wistful neighbor, Arthur For Mr. Inge seems to have no O'Connell as a comically reluctant p~rsonal point of ' view, but only a br.idegroom-help to bring to life knowledge of people and an iH all the cross-currents of Mr. Inge's, stinct for the truth of the world sensitive writing. they live in. Given a wayward The promise of "Come Back, Lit brute who has a certain sincerity tle Sheba" is abundantly f~lfilled.1 of his own, and a flimsy world of uPicnic" is an original, honest play Ilazy illusions blows apart. The with an awareness of people. Most women who are first amused and of the characters in "Picnic" do then titillated look around them ill not know what is happening to astonishment and terror at the end. them. 'But Mr. Inge does, for he is BeautifUl as the writing is. the an artist. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.