Picasso at the Lapin Agile

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//Hannah Jenkins//

As the school year is coming to an end, Stage Flight Theatre put on their final show, Picasso At The Lapin Agile written by Steve Martin. The play is about Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso, two geniuses of their craft, meeting in a bar called Lapin Agile. The two have a debate about art and science—a discussion that’s often argued. Senior Nate Cushing played Albert Einstein, the well known theoretical physicist.

“We wanted to portray Einstein as zanny and quirky; however, the word I think describes Einstein the best is curious,” Cushing said. “He is always attentive and listening to the people and to understand how they see the world.”

Sophomore Gabe Legg played Pablo Picasso, a genius of art.

“Picasso as a character is very passionate, kind of self-centered but in a charming way. He also cares a lot about the world around him, and that sometimes makes him come off as a little spasmodic,” Legg said.

The key point to Picasso’s character seems to be his passion.

“I used a lot of Picasso’s passion to paint what he feels rather than what others wanted him to paint,” Legg said.

The majority of the play is taken up by the debate between Einstein and Picasso discussing what it means to be a genius or having talent.

“I think the moment that Picasso and Einstein meet each other, they realize that they met their match,” Cushing said.

When the time had come for the two genius to resolve their argument, they instead came to a very different revelation.

“At first Picasso finds Albert Einstein to be pretty weird, but the more that they talk, they [realize how similar they are] despite coming from very different worlds,” Legg said.

Though the Lapin Agile is a real bar in Paris, the scenario is not.

“The meeting between Albert Einstein and Picasso never actually happened, however, it was the way [Steve Martin] showed the connection of ideas at the time,” Legg said.

A connection of ideas, a bond of genius, and finally, a relationship between two people from different worlds was displayed in Stage Flight Theatre’s performance.