In this review of a 1994 revival ofPicnic, Simon finds that several decades have not diminished the theatrical power of Inge's 1953 play. The critic praises the work for both its sharply drawn characters and its tangible sense of place, which he feels delivers "a sense of something pent-up longing to break out."

When is a classic born? When a once highly successful commercial play, revived several decades later, is found to be speaking just as strongly to the time of its revival. At that point you exclaim, "Damn it, this is art, after all!" That has now happened to Picnic, thanks to the Roundabout Theatre revival, and one only wishes that the playwright, William Inge, a lonely suicide in 1973 who would have turned 81 this year, could have lived to see it.

Picnic (1953), Inge's second hit after Come Back, Little Sheba, ran for two years in sold-out houses...