Synopsis
The Loman Family Picnic
Published by Dramatists Play Service
3 Male 2 Female
While they all strive to present an appearance of contentment and closeness, the family is beset by underlying tensions which burst forth when Herbie seizes his son's bar mitzvah money and, after an unseemly confrontation with everyone about how the bills for the celebration should be paid, storms out of the apartment. Mitchell's pain prompts him to show us a good portion of his new musical about the picnic the Loman family should have
When-and if-Herbie returns home is dealt with ironically by the interpretation of four possible endings, played one after the other, and culminating in the most comically depressing of all-the actual outcome, in which Herbie and Doris sit in their usual oppressive silence while Herbie stabs moodily at his tuna salad diet plate
"bizarre and arresting family portrait" ~ NY Post
"It manages the difficult and useful trick of being sad even in its funniness, funny even in its sadness." -NY Magazine. "there is a genuine power and pain in the writing" -BackStage. "bears the unmistakeable imprint of a writer with a genuinely talented, distinctive voice" ~ TheaterWeek