mORE pIctuREs

Picasso at the Lapin Agile By Steve Martin Directed by Gary Bolton

Preview

Meeting of Minds
Mike Norrton
Record-Eagle staff writer

Traverse City -- Picture this, two undiscovered geniuses -- a struggling painter and a young mathematician -- wind up having drinks one night in the same small French cafe. Each of them is about to reveal a new way of looking at the universe that will make his name a household word.

One is Pablo Picasso. The other is Albert Einstein.

What if they met and talked for an hour or two? What would they say to each other?

That's the idea behind Steve Martin's "Picasso at the Lapin Agile," which opens tonight at Traverse City's Old Town Playhouse. And since this is THAT Steve Martin -- he of the white suit, banjo and fake arrow-through-the-head -- Picasso and Einstein turn out to be two wild and crazy guys who compete for the attention of the same girl while trading quips and insults about art, love, lust and the future of human civilization.

"This is my favorite Steve Martin play," said Gary Bolton, who is directing the OTP Studio Theatre production. "I've been pushing them to do it for two years now, and this year I sort of fell into it."

"Picasso at the Lapin Agile" is set in the actual bar Pablo Picasso frequented in Paris. It's 1904, the year before Einstein wrote his "Special Theory of Relativity," the foundation of modern physics. It's three years before Picasso painted "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," the touchstone of cubism and modern art.

Martin's Picasso is a swaggering woman-obsessed stud, a man who's allowed to be insufferable simply because he's a wonderful artist. Einstein, by contrast, is a gentle and slightly air-headed physicist.

When they first meet, each man believes he holds the secret of the new century's greatest ideas, but their respective notions about the meaning of genius and the source of creative inspiration couldn't be farther apart. The result is a comic romp that ranges from the intellectually sublime to the slapstick and potty-mouthed.

"Steve Martin's done a fine job with this play," said Bolton, who's being assisted by producer Paula Czarny. "It revolves around a lot of real characters who were actually associated with the Lapin Agile, and the more I find out about it the deeper it goes."

Martin is hardly a newcomer to scriptwriting; he actually wrote the screenplays for what are arguably his two best films, "Roxanne" and "L.A. Story." Martin finished "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" and saw it produced for the first time on stage in 1993 at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater. (A film version starring Martin and Kevin Kline is in production and slated for release sometime next year.)

The artistic board at OTP actually considered presenting "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" on the Playhouse mainstage last year. Bolton concedes that some technical aids (the kind that allow for rapid scene changes, for instance) will be missing in the downstairs venue. On the other hand, he added, the Studio Theatre's more intimate atmosphere will allow the set designers to better approximate the feel of the actual French cabaret.

"Picasso at the Lapin Agile" features Scott MacManus as Picasso and Harry Gillen as Einstein, with Tom Pritchard, Bonnie Deigh, Mike Collison, Robert Roush, Hedges MacDonald, Stephanie Leach, Linda Smith and Visnja Kreiser.

Showtimes are 8 p.m.today and Saturday and Oct. 16, 17, 18, 23, 24 and 25. Tickets are $8 per person.

For reservations or more information, contact the Playhouse box office at 947-2443.

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