Picasso meets Einstein

Actor/comedian turned playwright Steve Martin's work "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" opened at Nashville's noted Brown County Playhouse to a crowd of more than 125 people Thursday evening.\nDirected by Murray McGibbon, assistant professor of directing and acting at IU, the show depicts a chance meeting by patent office worker and soon-to-be noted scientist Albert Einstein and the then amateur artist Pablo Picasso in a Parisian bar in 1904.\nMy two favorite characters throughout the entire show were Gaston, an elderly and high-class dirty old man who has a bit of trouble with his bladder and the scientific eccentric Albert Einstein.\nGaston is played by Richard Burke, who is a professor emeritus of IU's telecommunications department, playing the character and conveying a charming sense of trust and kindness. He seems a neat old coot who really likes a good-lookin' dame and an even better looking glass of wine. Burke's delivery comes across as being very natural -- like he's really in the scene and living the life of the character he's portraying, rather than just saying a bunch of lines a playwright penned and going through the motions. \nBurke made something as simple as having to alleviate the pressure of his bladder humorous by the way he continually got up and went to the bathroom. The danger in this sort of humor I call "humorous repetition" is the repetition will make the bit boring if it's overused. Every time Gaston got up to use the water closet, if was fresh as fresh can be. The simplicity of his portrayal made it wonderful. \nAlbert Einstein is a really interesting character in real life, and it would be silly not to make use of his complex and often times humorous personality. Toward the latter part of his life, rumor has it he only had four or five outfits that were all identical. He said he served to simplify his life because he didn't have to agonize over what to wear. While living in New Jersey after he came to the United States, the other noted scientist Edward Teller had to drive him the grocery store and probably balance his checkbook for him. The man who came up with the Theory of Relativity and spurred President Roosevelt's interest in the atomic bomb needed someone to do his coupon clipping for him. That's worth a play alone. \nThe very difficult role was played by Bill Simmons, who has a few credentials under his belt including the Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis. Simmons played a very intelligent character the audience could also enjoy and even, I believe, relate to in the way he was so lighthearted and humorous. \nSimmons plays Einstein as a person who is very smart and very close to making a major scientific breakthrough with a book called the "Special Theory of Relativity," but he does so with some humility that makes the audience enjoy the character. Einstein was just very pleasant to watch, and again he was always in the scene. He was very believable and his use of the heavy Jewish accent was also believable. \nI don't know what Einstein sounded like, but I can just see the mouth in a real picture of Einstein moving up and down and sounding like Bill Simmons. He actually reminded me of a character played by Laurence Olivier in "The Boys From Brazil" with Gregory Peck, made about 25 years ago. His movements were slow and pensive. His expressions fit the dialogue well, and he played well off of Jose Antonio Garcia, who played Pablo Picasso. Einstein compared to Picasso was a very down-to-earth, unassuming man who carried his mass intellect with a nice grace.\nThe portrayal of Picasso, on the other hand, I thought was problematic.\nGarcia played the role of Picasso as a brash and arrogant artist whose alacrity filled me with a disgust of the character. Picasso had talent. Obviously, I never knew Picasso. But if he was anything like Garcia's version, I wouldn't want to.\nThe show itself is very lighthearted and entertaining. It has highs and lows that keep the show going and interesting, but it is invariably without sensitive or thought-provoking moments. Steve Martin's zaniness prevails throughout the show and every time some goofy bit of shtick or dialogue takes place, you can imagine Martin sitting at a typewriter conjuring up the words blurted across the stage. \nMartin never lets the play get too weighted down with serious thoughts, because every time there seems a good way to tie in a little self-reflection or examination of anything social, something silly happens and ruins the moment. The humor, however, is not stupid. It's all very clever and requires a little thought. It is, by no means, slapstick.\nThis is an excellent show to see for sake of entertainment and unwinding after a hard day trapped inside your cubicle and almost blinded by the glare of the computer screen.