A meeting of the minds in Martin's 'Lapin Agile'
It's 1904 and Albert Einstein, on the brink of publishing his special theory of relativity, wanders into the Lapin Agile bar in Montmarte, Paris. He was supposed to meet a woman elsewhere, at the Bar Rouge. But when the bartender suggests he made a mistake, Einstein explains, "There is just as much a chance of her wandering in here accidentally as there is of her wandering into the Bar Rouge on purpose."
"He's like: It's all relative, ha, ha, ha," says actor Neil A. Casey. "And he adds, 'You forget one thing. She thinks like I do.' "
And so begins "Picasso at the Lapin Agile," which starts previews on Sunday at New Repertory Theatre. The play is comedian Steve Martin's take on what two geniuses would say to each other had their lives somehow intersected. Pablo Picasso, who is on the verge of creating his famous painting "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," also wanders into the bar, stumbles into Einstein, and is quickly drawn into a duel over which man is more important. The battle of wits leads to a series of conversations about sex, creativity, science, and art.
"It's a magical night in this bar," says Scott Sweatt, who plays Picasso. "They are caught up in things that are in the ether of life. Picasso is feeling this sense that he's anticipating this 'moment.' "
Picasso is in his "blue period," Sweatt notes, but in the course of the evening he gets the idea for "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" and finds the inspiration to move on to his next phase as a painter.
"Audiences can expect a play that has wonderful humor. It is Steve Martin, after all," says Casey, who plays Einstein, a role he prepared for not by studying the man, but by studying his ideas. "It's an intellectual comedy," Casey says. "It's not about becoming the real Einstein, but finding myself through his interests and thoughts."
