One of the most respected critics of drama, Clurman reviews the 1953 production of Inge's play. He finds the acting and staging to be substandard, failing to do justice to the playwright's written text.

The young girl in William Inge's new play, "Picnic": (Music Box Theater), like Shaw's "ingenue," is waiting for something to happen. But the environment of the American play—specifically Kansas— is a place where nothing can happen to anybody. The women are all frustrated by fearful, jerky men; the men are ignorant, without objective, ideals, or direction—except for their spasmodic sexual impulses. There is no broad horizon for anyone, and a suppressed yammer of desire emanates from every stick and stone of this dry cosmos, in which the futile people burn to cinders.

If you read my description and then see the play you will be either vastly relieved or shockingly disappointed. For...