REVIEW: Einstein and Picasso walk into a bar; in Geneseo, hilarity and wonder ensue
Steve Martin’s absurdist comedy, “Picasso at the Lapin Agile,” is like an 82-minute fantasy or fever dream.
Last staged at Geneseo’s Richmond Hill Players in 2002, the clever conceit is back — delivered with wit, style and wonder, by director and RHP veteran Jennifer Kingry, as the 10-member cast is playful and boisterous, looking like they’re having a grand old time.
While Martin should really have named this “Picasso and Einstein at the Lapin Agile” (since the famous painter does not appear in the 1904 bohemian café for a while), this entertaining, breezy meditation on big ideas and the dawn of the 20th century imagines a fictional encounter between young Albert Einstein and young Pablo Picasso, as both stand on the verge of cultural breakthroughs. Einstein’s is the special theory of relativity (1905) and Picasso’s is cubism, launched in 1907 with his controversial portrait of nude prostitutes, “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” (Young Ladies of Avignon).
(from left) Kassidy Holdridge, Tori House, Mischa Hooker, Andy Schaser, Matthew McConville, Bruce Carmen, and Justin Raver in the new Richmond Hill production of a Steve Martin play, running through Sunday, Aug. 30.
I understand this is meant to be a light-hearted, fanciful comedy, but it would have been helpful and educational for the play to at least give glancing mention to what each of the men’s major achievements meant to their respective fields, physics and art. We know Einstein and Picasso were IMPORTANT, but why were they? They obviously each had new, different, innovative ways of looking at the world.
Though Einstein (1879-1955) and Picasso (1881-1973) apparently never met in real life, in Steve Martin’s world, they both consider themselves artists who immediately bond with each other, and are supremely confident in their ability to change the world, and the 20th century. The Lapin Agile was an actual bar in Paris and Kingry in her program note says that Picasso really did frequent it. In 1905, he once paid for his bill with a painting (“At the Lapin Agile”), which depicts himself as a harlequin in the foreground. In 1989, it was sold in New York for nearly $41 million and hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (you can check out a copy at the RHP lobby).
Mischa Hooker, left, and Matthew McConville at Richmond Hill’s “Picasso at the Lapin Agile.”
Kingry wrote it’s unknown if Einstein ever visited the Lapin Agile. Martin (the beloved actor/comedian/writer) studied philosophy and logic in college, and has long been an avid art collector. His knowledge, and art terminology is gleefully bandied about in the play, which premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago in late 1993.
The first very smart move Kingry made in staging at the in-the-round Geneseo barn theater, is removing one of the four banks of seats (which RHP has occasionally done before), to more convincingly create the bar set, which appropriately features several paintings on the back wall. Matthew McConville is the genial bartender Freddy, and Bruce Carmen is the ordinary, everyman regular Gaston (Lapin Agile’s “Norm,” if you will). He’s kind of the stand-in for the audience, marveling at the history unfolding before him, and at one point bemoaning the fact that he hasn’t had sex in eight months.
In her RHP debut, Kassidy Holdridge is a theatrical, exuberant Suzanne, a beautiful 19-year-old girl who is infatuated with Picasso, and she returns late in the play as the more formal, uptight Countess, with red hair and glasses, to meet Einstein. Tori House is the slightly cynical, no-nonsense Germaine, girlfriend of Freddy. When she asks Einstein what he writes about, he says, “everything,” and it’s bigger than life, the Earth, solar system and the universe. Germaine also makes predictions about the rest of the century (most true, some not, and one – “cruelty will be perfected” that’s more true today than in ’93).
Mischa Hooker and Justin Raver are both irrepressible, brash and enthusiastic in their monumental roles (Albert and Pablo, respectively), emphasizing the innocent sense of play and possibility that both men clearly had. One fun scene has Einstein and Picasso in a mock duel, as they each wield a piece of paper and pencil, and make their mark, literally, handing them back to each other. Picasso predicts they both will change the future.
Kassidy Holdridge and Justin Raver in “Picasso at the Lapin Agile.”
The thought-provoking, insightful play is an examination of the creative process – just how is it that the great breakthroughs come about? Within the play, Picasso and Einstein represent the dichotomy of art and science; both of them make the argument that their particular sphere of influence will have the greater effect on the world and the future, Kingry said before the show. But they also discover that their creative processes have more similarities to each other than differences. And then another character appears late in the show to present the point of view that popular art may have the biggest influence of all.
That influential “Third Man” is just called “A Visitor” in the program, but it’s clearly a young Elvis Presley, portrayed with cute charm by Victor Angelo. His big entrance is preceded by light effects and a bit of the “2001: A Space Odyssey” theme, and as a messenger, he creates the effect on the back bar wall to project a version of the famous Picasso painting (on which previously hung a much debated black-and-white painting of sheep in a foggy meadow).
Tori House and Mischa Hooker in “Picasso at the Lapin Agile.”
Kingry brings more fantastical effects near the end of the intermission-less play, including lots of little stars throughout the darkened theater. As the three men (under spotlights) are starstruck and awestruck, it is a moving, magical moment.
The talented cast here includes Andy Schaser (as Picasso’s art dealer), Shyan DeVoss (as a blissful admirer), and Samuel Carrington (as the carnival barker-like young inventor Schmendiman). “Picasso at the Lapin Agile” will continue Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (Aug. 27-29) at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Aug. 30 at 3 p.m. Reservations are recommended and can be made by calling the Richmond Hill box office at 309-944-2244 or by visiting the website at rhplayers.com. Admission to all performances is $12.
Richmond Hill also offers Assistive Listening Devices, which can be requested at the time that reservations are made.
Justin Raver plays the painter Pablo Picasso in the new RHP production of “Picasso at the Lapin Agile,” which runs through Aug. 30, 2026.
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