And then … as darkness descends, Hal stops dancing with Millie, and instead starts dancing with Madge, the older sister. In an instant, you can feel the heat between them, the need. Millie – and the fact that SHE had been on the date with Hal – is forgotten. She’s just a little girl, after all. Hal was taking her to the picnic just to be a nice guy. Madge and Hal circle around in the sunset, as Millie watches from the background. Millie sees someone’s coat hanging over a chair, and in a pocket of the coat is a flask of whiskey. She starts to swig it down, steadfastly, in the background. This will not end well … for Millie or for anybody else …
Notice how the sunset deepens in the background throughout the act. In each picture, the sky looks different. Again – genius lighting design. All of Act II was a lonnnnnng sloooowww cue … sunset glowing, night falling …
Millie looks pretty bummed out in the background, I’ve got to say.
