In the war zone a solitary soldier's scared stiff. His parents come in to share a picnic basket with him. A frightened enemy soldier is captured though no one knows what to do with him. There's an air raid - while the parents continue talking. They then devise a way for ending the war - telling the ruling powers the ranks don't like to play at war anymore. It's a marvelously simple solution and would work - except a machine gun suddenly silences them and their idea.
Picnic on the Battlefield is published in the collection Guernica and Other Plays.
First premiered on Théâtre de Lutèce on April 25, 1959.