Picasso at the Lapin Agile
Ruskin Group Theatre
Reviewed by Taylor Kass
Through April 30
RECOMMENDED
A physicist and a painter walk into a bar. It sounds like a joke, but it’s also the premise of Steve Martin’s 1993 play Picasso at the Lapin Agile. The punchline? The physicist in question is Albert Einstein (Ryan Stiffelman) and the painter is Pablo Picasso (Isaac J. Cruz). The Ruskin Group Theatre’s production of Picasso at the Lapin Agile, directed by Amelia Mulkey, is as smart, funny, and engrossing as its source material and its subjects.
It’s the dawn of the twentieth century and there’s something in the air – in 1904, it seems that anyone can change the world. There’s no evidence that Einstein and Picasso ever interacted in real life, but Picasso at the Lapin Agile captures the intoxicating possibility that they could have crossed paths in an ordinary bar on an extraordinary night in Paris. The visionary pair are joined by the Lapin Agile’s owners Freddy and Germaine (J. Teddy Garces and Amy Motta), Picasso’s scorned lover Suzanne (the scene-stealing Ashley Barrett), and a colorful crowd of patrons who debate the new century’s most hot-button topics. Isaac J. Cruz, who certainly bears a physical resemblance to Picasso, is a passionate playboy that charms the art world and every woman he meets. Ryan Stiffelman, who is also the spitting image of a young Einstein, oozes intelligence and a laser-focused drive to make his dreams a reality. Gorgeous and detailed costumes by Michael Mullen also deserve credit for making turn-of-the-century Paris feel immediate and immersive.
Playwright Steve Martin injects his signature offbeat comedy into this refreshingly heady, Tom Stoppard-esque piece. Before studying acting, Martin attended college as a philosophy major and his desire to find meaning in art and science is on full display in Picasso at the Lapin Agile. Each of its characters are obsessed with philosophical theory, society, relationships, culture, and most of all, the future. Picasso and Einstein never doubt their genius; they never waver from the inevitability that they will change the world. It’s hard not to imagine Martin himself, writing this play at the tail end of the 1900s, endeavoring to find the source of his own genius and his place in the century ahead.
Ruskin Group Theatre, 3000 Airport Ave., Santa Monica; Fri. – Sat. 8 pm.; Sun., 2 pm; through April 30. https://www.ruskingrouptheatre.com or (310) 397-3244. Running time: 90 minutes with no intermission.
