Picnic on a Battlefield

Theatre Novi Most, most recently remembered for 2010's The Oldest Story in the World (which Twin Cities Daily Planet called "something brilliant" and "bewitching" and Minnesota Playlist hailed as "an ecstatic combo-platter of history-spanning storytelling"), blends two absurdist plays -- Fernando Arrabel's Picnic on the Battlefield (1961) and Slawomir Mrozek's Enchanted Night (1952) -- into one slapstick-funny and dead-serious narrative, with unique connections between the characters in both pieces.
Picnic on the Battlefield begins with Zapo, a soldier from a nameless country, as he comes face-to-face with his greatest horror: an unannounced visit from his parents; they've arrived on the battlefield to cheer up their despondent son with a picnic. As the bombs continue to fall around them, and as the family accidentally captures an enemy soldier named Zepo, Zapo continuously struggles to balance his job as a soldier and entertaining his overbearing folks. From the battlefield, we follow two business men as they share a hotel room. In the middle of the night, they are visited by a beautiful young woman, except they can't decide if she is real or a dream. And if the men are dreaming who is dreaming whom? Picnic on the Battlefield weaves two plays from two different decades (from two separate parts of the world) together in surprising ways, retaining the purity of each piece while also creating an entertaining commentary bigger than the sum of its parts. Picnic on the Battlefield will feature performances by Maren Ward, Jason Ballweber, Diogo Lopes, Carly Wicks, Billy Mullaney, Christopher Kehoe, and Majid Mokhtari. Design by Annie Katsura Rollins, Robert Perry, Amanda McGee. Directed by Lisa Channer and Vladimir Rovinsky