PICNIC ON THE BATTLEFIELD

An original mash-up of Picnic on the Battlefield and Enchanted Night

The creators of 2010's Oldest Story in the World return to the Southern Theater

January 9, 2012 (Minneapolis, MN) - On March 2, 2012, Theatre Novi Most will open its latest production at The Southern Theater, Picnic on the Battlefield: an original tragicomedy about the absurdities of war. Theatre Novi Most, best known for 2010’s The Oldest Story in the
World (which Twin Cities Daily Planet called “something brilliant” and “bewitching” and Minnesota Playlist hailed “an ecstatic combo-platter of history-spanning storytelling”), will blend two absurdist plays -- Fernando Arrabal’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. Decades later, two former war medics share a hotel room built on the vary same battlefield. 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 former medics are dreaming, who is dreaming whom? Picnic on the Battlefield weaves two plays from two different decades (from two separate parts of the world) in surprising ways, retaining the purity of each piece while also creating an entertaining commentary bigger than the sum of its parts.

About the cast

Picnic on the Battlefield will feature performances by Maren Ward (Producing Artistic Director, Bedlam Theatre), Jason Ballweber (Artistic Director, Four Humors Theater), Diogo Lopes (Red Resurrected, Isabel Nelson and her Ensemble), Carly Wicks (The Learning Fairy, Open Eye Figure Theatre), Christopher Kehoe (Ajax in Iraq, Frank Theatre), and Billy Mullaney (The Oldest Story in the World, Theatre Novi Most).

About the production team

Set design will be provided by Annie Katsura Rollins, light design by Rob Perry, sound design by Aaron Schoenrock, and costumes by Amanda McGee.

About the playwrights

Fernando Arrabal (Playwright, Picnic on the Battlefield) was born in 1932, and grew up within the Spanish Civil War. Arrabal commands an impressive body of work, having published over 100 plays, 14 novels, and directed seven full-length films. A distinct surrealist and absurdist
aesthetic has kept Arrabal in the same literary conversations as Marcel Duchamp, Eugène Ionesco, Dario Fo, and Jean Baudrillard. The Dictionary of Literatures in the French Language called Arrabal “artistic heir of [Franz] Kafka’s lucidity and [Alfred] Jarry’s humor; in his
violence, Arrabal is related to [Marquis de] Sade and [Antonin] Artaud...deeply political and merrily playful, both revolutionary and bohemian.” There are also a number of unsubstantiated reports that Arrabal was a finalist for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.

Slawomir Mrozek (Playwright, Enchanted Night) was born in Poland in 1930, and joined the Polish United Worker’s Party while the country was under Stalinist rule. A political journalist before becoming a playwright, Mrozek’s anti-religious career took him to France, Italy, Mexico, and Yugoslavia. His plays are firmly set within Theatre of the Absurd, with scenarios designed to shock audiences with non-realistic elements, political and historic references, distortion, and parody.

About Theatre Novi Most

Theatre Novi Most (Russian for “Theatre of a New Bridge”) was founded in 1998 by Russian director Vladimir Rovinsky and American director Lisa Channer, and has been based in Minneapolis since 2008. We combine the artistic traditions of Russia and America to create performances in which disparate ideas, languages, cultures and ideologies can clash, commingle and cross-pollinate. We believe theatre is at its most engaging when it is charting unknown territory. Therefore we build works for the stage that conjure new theatrical languages and build innovative bridges across artistic barriers. Past Novi Most productions familiar to Twin Cities audiences include The Oldest Story in the World (The Southern Theater, 2010), M2: Mayakovsky
and Marinetti (Open Eye Figure Theatre, 2009), and Delirium for Two (Minnesota Fringe Festival, 2008).

More about the company...