Pigs Eye Theatre - Picasso at the Lapin Agile: What if Picasso and Einstein met for Happy Hour?

Picasso at the Lapin Agile By Steve Martin	Directed by Zach Curtis
August 22 - September 6, 2003 at Cedar Riverside People's Center

What if Picasso and Einstein met for Happy Hour?

by Lisa Brock
Special to the Star Tribune

May 25th, 2004

The Steve Martin play "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" is a lot like that game in which you must name the historical figure you'd most like to invite to dinner. I'm not sure whom Martin would choose to dine with, but he clearly wouldn't mind sharing a few drinks with Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein.

Martin's play, being staged by Pigs Eye Theatre in Minneapolis, revolves around an imaginary meeting between the two geniuses in 1904 Paris. Picasso is at the end of his Blue Period, poised on the brink of launching cubism. Einstein is a year shy of publishing his "Special Theory of Relativism." When they happen upon each other in a bistro called the Lapin Agile, a sort of "Cheers" episode on steroids ensues as the two men exchange barbs, ogle women and argue about the nature of genius and art.

Martin has done a masterful job of creating quirky, irreverent and very believable characters out of these two icons of 20th-century culture; not surprisingly, Pigs Eye's production, under Zach Curtis' direction, is at its best when focused on them.

Ari Hoptman brings a self-deprecating sweetness and killer sense of comic timing to the role of Einstein, creating a wonderfully warm and eccentric portrait of a man who views physics as a form of art. Hoptman's witty scientist offers a fine contrast to Carson Lee's strutting,hyper-masculine Picasso. The dialogue between the two men seems to strike sparks in the air as they quarrel and quibble like precocious children (at one point, Einstein snaps back at Picasso: "Maybe you're an idiot savant. And hold the savant").

Beyond the snappy hilarity of their arguments, however, what makes this relationship work onstage is the degree to which both actors have so tangibly captured the passionate creativity of their characters.

It's perhaps inevitable that Martin's secondary characters pale in the brilliant light shed by the two towering figures, but they could have been given a little more attention. From the down-to-earth proprietor of the Lapin Agile to the lusty barmaid to the slightly sodden regular with a weak bladder, those roles seem to serve little purpose other than to facilitate the interaction between Einstein and Picasso.

Nevertheless, there are some good efforts with very spare material here. Dale Pfeilsticker does a wickedly funny turn as a cynical art dealer, while Juliana Egley creates a charming portrait of a young woman first enamored of, then disillusioned by the womanizing Picasso.

Despite the peripheral quality of the secondary characters and a kitchen-sink ending that seems ready to spin out of control, this production capitalizes on the powerful dynamic between the two central characters and gets it exactly right. By the end of the show you may indeed feel that you just finished eavesdropping on two remarkable men as they were poised to change the world.

Lisa Brock is a Minneapolis writer.

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