PICASSO AT THE LAPIN AGILE
Set in 1904 (the year Picasso settled in France for good, and a couple of years before he painted his revolutionary, African-influenced Les demoiselles d’Avignon), Martin’s play posits a barroom encounter between the volatile young Spaniard and the quirky German, who was developing the theses whose publication the next year would make his name and revolutionize scientific thought. (The script wrongly suggests Einstein was living in Paris in 1904; he was in Switzerland, working as a patent officer.)
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That’s not to diminish the importance of pure thought, as represented by Picasso’s scientific art and Einstein’s artful science–just to note that Martin’s cleverly phrased but shallowly considered epigrams trivialize the ambitious material he’s chosen for his theatrical debut. One would applaud his bravery if it looked more like bravery and less like arrogance.
