Beth Henley’s play Ridiculous Fraud, a one-act play, climaxes with a family picnic in a cemetery. “Picnics in the graveyard! A great New Orleans tradition,” says Uncle Baites, “Why weep over the dead? We come, we go. We come, we go!”
It is the annual Clay family Easter Sunday reunion, and they gather at the family tomb, which in New Orleans is above ground. Since the family seldom meets to talk, a picnic offers a chance for communicating, but it is never without tension: as Andrew explains, “My brothers usually come by to visit on Easter. Uncle Baites brings a picnic. We don’t talk often. This is the way the family has its meetings, even though it may be once a year.”
There is a patina of family affection: they share fried chicken, fruit pies, cupcakes, whiskey, and Cokes, but eaten without joy. It is a death picnic, Henley’s metaphor for the breakdown of the fundamental rule that happy families will have happy picnics. This picnic demonstrates how separate each member of the Clay is from the others.
See: Beth Henley. Ridiculous Fraud (2006)
Featured Image: Emily Mann, director, production of Ridiculous Fraud at the 2006 McCarter Theater