The Teddy Bears' Picnic and The Potsdam Quartet complete David Pinner's trilogy of plays featuring Joseph Stalin. The third play in the trilogy, Lenin in Love, was published by Oberon Books in October 2000. The Teddy Bears' Picnic explores the personal and professional conflicts between a group of musicians hired to play for Stalin, Truman, Churchill and Atlee at the Potsdam Conference in 1945. The musicians are confined to an anteroom in between playing for The Big Four. The leaders never appear, but their presence looms over the action. In The Potsdam Quartet Stalin takes centre stage, mainly in his role as the smiling, malignant host of the dinner parties held at his country dacha. His Politburo were forced to attend such parties, which combined terror with practical jokes.
- ISBN10 1840022647
- ISBN13 9781840022643
- Publish Date 1 February 2001
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 9 August 2010
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Imprint Oberon Books Ltd
- Format Paperback
- Pages 178
- Language English