Closeted and dogged by an acute sense of failure for most of his life until he ended it, William Inge wrote some of the great lyrical plays of the American mid-century, and Picnic was his masterpiece, his playground and, quite possibly, his fantasy. In this loving reimagining, director John Farmanesh-Bocca puts Inge’s play in the tumultuous 1960’s with an all black cast. 

Sensual, passionate and delightfully funny, Picnic is a timeless American classic about the line between restraint and desire. When a handsome young drifter named Hal arrives in a small Midwestern town, his combination of uncouth manners and titillating charm sends the women reeling, especially the beautiful Madge. What follows is an achingly true depiction of their struggle to find something of their own value in the midst of adult pettiness and despair.

In 1953 Picnic won both the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Circle Award. 

Read the Director’s Note | Read a Cast Member’s Note