Picasso at the Lapin Agile - Dramatic Criticism

Picasso at the Lapin Agile From the time you enter the Falk Theatre, until the curtain rises and falls on the Stageworks productions of Picasso at the Lapin Agile, you are in for a treat. The play is an original work by Steve Martin with a running time of 90minutes, which feels more like 30minutes. Aside from the uncomfortable seating, this production is nothing short of wonderful. The Theatre has been transformed from a long movie Theater atmosphere to a quaint surrounding by means of risers that are placed directly on the stage. The new seating divides the old Theater in half and allows for the actors and the audience to share the same space. Not only this atmosphere that makes it wonderful but also the performances, the direction, the design and the script. Set in France in 1904, the stage is a French bar called the "Lapin Agile", with the action of the plot involving the characters who come into the bar and their relationship to time as well as each other. The script is an abstract look at the chance meeting of historical figures and the role these meetings will have on the future. Perhaps one of the most attractive aspects of the script is its ability to ask the same questions of the audience that it does from one character to another. For example, the owner of the "Lapin Agile", Freddy attempts to stump Albert Einstein with a mathematical problem that the audience couldn't have enough time to equate. This style of fast paced dialogue and action fills the entire script from the opening line, adding humor and wit which is only emphasized by the close attention to details. In the set design, we first see the use of layering, with a large cyclorama that has been painted onto a piece of scrim to allow for a visual effect at the end of the play. The painting depicts a beautiful scene of "sheep in a meadow in the fog", with a wall to represent the interior of the "Lapin Agile" containing a painting of "sheep in a meadow in the fog". On each side of