At The Little Theater

By Julie Stern

Because Picasso at the Lapin Agile was written by the comedian Steve Martin, it mixes genuine artistic and intellectual ideas with zany absurdities, in a way that should appeal to both people looking for meaty intelligent content, and those looking for a light evening out. And all this is accomplished by The Town Players of Newtown in one lively act that sends you to the parking lot before 9:30.

The year is 1903: the setting is The Lapin Agile (The Agile Rabbit) a café in the Montmartre district of Paris, the center of the bohemian artistic community of Europe. The conceit of the play is that a dreamy young physicist, one Albert Einstein, and a raffish young artist, Pablo Picasso, happen to be hanging out there on the same evening. They enter into conversation with one another, as well as with the proprietors and some other patrons, and we, the audience, are thus made witnesses to history.

It is still a year before Einstein, the patent office clerk, will publish his “Special Theory of Relativity,” and three years before Picasso will paint “les Demoiselles d’Avignon,” the work that would introduce a radical new artistic school called Cubism. At this point these creations are only ideas, germinating in the minds of the two giants of the modern age, but the atmosphere is clearly that of an age bubbling with revolutionary change.

Overthrowing old prejudices and exploring new avenues, not only in science and painting but also in music, popular culture and relationships between the sexes, are all topics worthy of consideration in this heady mix of conversation. Picasso, the as-yet undiscovered painter, is presented as an irrepressible bundle of appetites, hungering equally after women of every stripe, while equally driven to fulfill his artistic vision.

Einstein, by contrast, is a droll, self-mocking wit, who invokes his concept of relativity as a way of flirting with his current love interest.

Martin toys with dramatic conventions as well, by having the café proprietor snatch a playbill from a front row audience member and scold this physicist for coming on stage too soon (“If the cast is listed in order of appearance, you should have been the fourth person to come in the door!”).

While they are presented as callow young men, the audience is also given frequent reminders of who these “nobodies” will eventually become, with veiled references to intellectual history. At the same time the eventual triumph of the Pop Culture is foreshadowed by the arrival of a visitor from the future, direct from Vegas in his blue suede shoes.

The production is vividly staged, using inventive lighting design by Nick Kaye (who also gives a smashing performance as the swivel hipped icon from Vegas) that goes along with a set that lovingly recreates a Parisian bistro.

Jeffry Bukowski and Ian Keyworth worked hard in the roles of Einstein and Picasso, but I felt the strongest performances came from Little Theater veterans Tim Huebenthal as the proprietor Freddy, and Steve Yudelson as Gaston, a steady customer, along with Barbara Disraeli as the waitress and Freddy’s girlfriend, Germaine.

Nina Yasick, just a high school senior but clearly a skilled actress, handles the parts of three of the young women attracted to the men. Ron Malyszka, another veteran,  plays Picasso’s art dealer, interested in how much things sell for, and Brian Zupcoe plays the Steve Martin invention, Charles Dabernow  Schmendiman, whose overly inflated ego convinces him that he is destined for greatness. But you’ve probably never heard of him.

(Performances continue at The Little Theatre weekends until September 25.

See the Enjoy Calendar, in print and online at www.NewtownBee.com under the Features tab; call 203-270-9144 or visit www.NewtownPlayers.org for full details.)