"...you'll love this beautifully acted show..."

"...touchingly played..."

Get a taste of life in America in 'Picnic'

By Bob Rose
Special to the Post Star

BENNINGTON, Vt. - Prolific playwright William Inge's 1952 drama "Picnic" completes the exciting season Oldcastle Theatre Company has devoted to American classics.

Directed by Eric Peterson and co-starring BIlly Lane and Katharine Jameson, both making their Oldcastle debuts, "Picnic" is powerfully acted to bring out both Inge's sense of comedy and the character's personal tragic love lives.

Lane makes a perfect Hal Carter; the no-good drifter who arrives in a Kansas small town one Labor Day morning and changes the lives of several women with whom he comes in contact.

Lane is handsome, muscular and generally attractive to the ladies, old and young.  His character is a confirmed braggart, stemming mostly from his failure to find success in life except on the football field.

Jameson's character is his primary victim, an attractive but insecure young woman named Madge Owens who is more or less betrothed to Kent Burnham's Alan Seymour, a wealthy local fellow who happens to be Hal's best college friend and supporter.

Burnham who appeared last year as George in "All My Sons," is equally adept at attracting the attention of all onstage as well as in the audience.

A neighbor, Helen Potts, who is smitten with Hal's charms, takes the fellow in on his promise of doing some yard work in payment .  Sheila Childs, who has had many Oldcastle roles, makes Helen sparkle with their character's wit and enthusiasm.

Following her debut last season as Ann in "All My Sons," Jennifer Kaeppel returns to create a most enthusiastic tomboyish Millie Owens, Madge's younger sister.

The girls' mother is portrayed touchingly by Melissa Hurst, who is well-known in the area after appearing at Dorset Theatre Festival in such plays as "Go Back for Murder" and "Present Laughter."  Hurst makes her Oldcastle debut as Flo Owens.

Oldcastle veteran ("All My Sons") Yvonne Perry is most attractive physically and emotionally  as Rosemary Sydney, an old-maid school teacher desperately trying to lure local businessman Howard Bevans, well acted by Richard Howe, into a long-overdue marriage.

With its talented cast, "Picnic" offers an engrossing look at Inge's trend-setting attempt to focus on the lives that so often lie hidden beneath the fable of the prim and proper small American community of the 1950s.

You'll enjoy the pre-curtain recorded music of that era, which helps set the mood for all that follows.  If you appreciate Inge's stark creativity, you'll love this beautifully acted show.

The triumph of Eric Peterson's casting
is that of the Owens women (above):
Katherine Jameson, Melissa Hurst, Jennifer Kaeppell who seem as though they are related, and behave as if they have lived in the same little house for years.
                                The Advocate/Berkshires