Frederick Ashton’s Picnic at Tintagel (1952)

Frederick Ashton’s Picnic at Tintagel is inspired by  Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s popular Victorian novel Royal Mount, where sightseers picnic on Tintagel Castle’s ruins. (Discussion of Braddon’s Royal Mount is posted elsewhere on PicnicWit.com)...

George Steven’s Giant (1952)

Stevens’ barbacoa picnic in Giant is sure-fire-cinema. When Virginia-born-and-bred Leslie Lynnton attends her first Texas picnic, she faints. Barbacoa is an acquired taste at a picnic or elsewhere. It may be delicious, but it is not for the squeamish. Leslie...

Amy Vanderbilt’s Complete Book of Etiquette (1952)

Vanderbilt doesn’t care whether your picnic is a cookout or you bring food prepared. Menus in  Complete Book of Etiquette are tried and true cold fried chicken, little cold veal or English ham pies, chicken, or potato salad. If you pack in a thermos, Vanderbilt...

“We’re not goin’ on no goddamn picnic,” William Inge’s Picnic (1953)

When Hal Carter tells Madge Owens, “We’re not goin’ on no goddamn picnic,” he means they are “goin'” to make love instead. Madge is willing. They are so passionate, their lust so potent, audiences never notice that when the curtain...

Euan Uglow’s Musicians (1953)

Uglow titled this Musicians, but it’s very like a picnic. Featured Image: Musicians (1953) oil on canvas.  Swansea, England: National Museum of Wales

L.P. Hartley’s The Go-Between (1953)

Leo Colston’s memories of Brandham Hall fifty years earlier are an infinite source of trouble. Now about sixty-two, he is still trying to understand why. Sometimes Leo is called Mercury or the postman because he’s the go-between surreptitiously delivering...

Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (1953)

Beckett’s setting for Waiting for Godot (En antendant Godot) is an empty stage and a tree without leaves. It’s an unlikely place for an unhappy picnic. The picnic begins when Pozzo and Lucky arrive. Pozzo brandishes a whip and holds Lucky at the end of a...

Jane Bowles’ In the Summer House (1953)

Bowles’s In the Summer House is an absurd play, and she admirably proves the rule that some people do silly things at picnics. The action begins with a lawn picnic at which characters with tenuous relationships incessantly bicker. When Mr. Solares enters,...

Paul Bowles & James Schuyler’s A Picnic Cantata (1953)

Bowles and Schuyler’s performance piece A Picnic Cantata: for Four Women’s Voices, Two Pianos, and Percussion (1954) is delightfully silly. It’s about a happy picnic that is intentionally nonsensical. The music by Bowles’ and the libretto by...

Nadine Gordimer’s The Lying Days (1953)

It’s a tender moment when Helen Shaw and Joel Aaron climb a hill to picnic and enjoy the view. They do not bring food or picnic gear but sit on the rock facing the sun. They are good friends, not lovers, and Aaron soon will be leaving Joel for Israel. Helen...