Kosashvili’s picnic is comic and glum, as Chekhov intended. While other picnickers enjoy the view, Laevski, the protagonist, says, “To be in continual ecstasy over nature shows a poverty of imagination.” Laevski is a man who cannot enjoy himself, especially at a picnic.
The picnickers get drunk as the picnic progresses from late afternoon to evening. The darkness reveals their unhappiness, especially Laevsky, who is depressed with his wasted career, unhappy with his mistress Nadya, and burdened by gambling debts. Nadya is upset because Laevsky will not marry her, yet she is unfaithful and barters sexuality to repay her debts. Two of her lovers are present at the picnic and badger her. Kirilin, the police captain, threatens embarrassment if she refuses his desire. Atchmianov, the shopkeeper’s son, offers to pay her debt at the fabric shop for her company. 
Sitting in the flickering firelight, Laevski and Nadya drink until they are sloppy. Nadya’s wine dribbles down her chin and onto her dress, but she doesn’t care. She eats fish soup, but Laevski is unconcerned with eating. He’s morose and drinks wine. Kosashvili captures the ambiance of firelight and how the shadows meant as an ironic metaphor for his character’s unhappiness as described by Chekhov: “Patches of red light from the fire moved together with the shadows over the ground near the dark human figures, and quivered on the mountain, on the trees, on the bridge, on the drying-shed; on the other side the steep, scooped-out bank was all lighted up and glimmering in the stream, and the rushing turbid water broke its reflection into little bits.”
The food I fish stew prepared onsite. 
The cast: Andrew Scott as Laevsky; Fiona Glascott as Nadya; Tobias Menzies as Von Koren; and Mislav Cavajda as Kirilin.
See Dover Kosashvili. The Duel (2010). Screenplay by Mary Bing is based on Chekhov’s he Duel (1891), Iosif Kheifits. The Bad Good Man (1973). The screenplay by Kheifits is based on Chekhov’s novella (1891), Anton Chekhov. The Duel and Other Stories (1891). Translated by Constance Garnett. London: Chatto & Windus, 1916; The Duel. Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. New York; Modern Library, 2003