Feb. 16, 2002 – Add a few palm trees and a stretch of sand to the attractive set, update the charming costumes, and "Picnic" has a story line the same as scenarios played out every day on St. John.
The Epiphany Theater Company production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama opened to a full house Friday at the Marketplace in Cruz Bay.
William Inge's classic play centers on the before-and-after activities of a Labor Day picnic. It's set in a shared yard in a small Kansas town, circa 1953. The characters are as familiar as your face in the mirror.
St. John has its share of women like Madge Owens, ably played by Liza Mostsinsker. With restlessness and a thirst for adventure threatening her relationship with her fiancé, rich boy Alan Seymour, played by John Grammer, she's ripe for romance when bare-chested Hal Carter rolls into town in a freight car. Carter, played by Jeff Crokin, upsets the apple cart of the small community.
Full of swagger, he has a long history of living on the edge. "I always thought if I just had a chance, I could set the whole world on fire," he says.
It soon becomes apparent that he, like many people on St. John, has been looking for love in all the wrong places.
St. John also has its share of young women metamorphosing from overalls to party dresses. Jennifer Gibbud as Madge's younger sister, Millie, makes this transition nicely. In fact, members of the audience were heard after the performance congratulating her mother, Melissa, on how lovely her daughter has grown.
Ruthellen Mulberg as Rosemary Sydney could be any number of on-the-brink-of-middle-age single school teachers plying their craft at St. John's schools. Independent on the outside, Rosemary longs on the inside for love. "It's no good living in rented rooms meeting old maids for supper,"she says.
We won't tell you how she snares her man, but she does drive off into the morning sun with Tim Jackson as Howard Bevans for her new home in nearby Cherryville.
Her friends, Marni Walters as Christine and Tracy Ricks as Irma Kronkite, are equally true to form as spinster teachers.
And then there's Flo Owens, played by Debra Grammer. The mother of Madge and Millie, she's had her own disappointments in life. Now the proprietor of the rooming house where Rosemary lives, Flo aspires to get Madge married well into Alan's family. "You'll have charge accounts at all the stores," Flo tells her daughter.
While St. John doesn't have paperboys, you can see any number of St. John teen-age boys in Paul Nellis's Bomber. He's obnoxious but at the same time endearing as he gives Millie the business along with her newspaper.
Since St. John is the consummate small town, the faces on the stage, all those of St. John residents, were familiar to most in the audience Friday night. For instance, you've seen Cynthia Smith, who plays Flo's neighbor Helen Potts, many times standing with her hands on her hips as she directs tourists in the finer points of snorkeling at Trunk Bay on her day job.
And some of her lines hit right home on St. John. "It's so hot this time of year," she says. "I'd welcome a good cyclone, even if it did blow everything away."
The Epiphany production is directed by Frank Bartolucci, with Michael Beason as executive producer, Paul Divine as producer and Lisa Duncan as assistant director.
"Picnic" is a must see. It's not Broadway, but the production is equal to any little theater performance elsewhere, and it's neat to see your friends under the bright lights of St. John's only theater.
The play continues its run Saturday and Sunday as well as Feb. 22-24 and March 1-3. All performances are at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 in advance, available at connections and Tropicale on St. John, and $15 at the door.