Theatre: Picasso At The Lapin Agile.

For a production company’s debut effort, Picasso At The Lapin Agile by Steve Martin doesn’t seem like an obvious choice. It’s a script rich in attempted profundity and successful humour, an explicitly post-modern and vaguely post-structuralist take on the 20^th century and beyond. It’s an extremely ambitious work by Martin, but there’s a reason that productions of it often garner such disparate reactions. Put simply, some of the script isn’t very good.

But regardless, Fourth Floor Productions – a new production company formed out of university productions, community theatre groups and so on – decided on Picasso for their inaugural performance, and surprisingly they’ve done bloody well with it.

It’s a script that relies more on its own cleverness than on narrative or structure. Martin writes each line with a wink and a nod, trying to impress the audience again and again with his own genius. It’s a particularly egocentric work.

As such, it’s a script that demands confidence and yearns for characterisation. Director Andrew Johnston has delivered the former, whilst the fantastic cast have delivered the latter in spades. The intimate setting of the Bondi Pavilion provides a perfect background for the production, set in a bar in Paris at the turn of the century. The audience become patrons of the Lapin Agile, cheekily listening in on the ramblings of Picasso, Einstein and others.

From the outset, there’s a feeling of debutant exuberance from the cast, as Freddy – the bar manager, played by Jason Graham – takes to the stage. The excitement of a production company delivering its first work is palpable. Einstein comes along – played by Chris Tangye – and you know you’re in for a good time. Tangye is extraordinary. His physicalisation and facial expressions are a beautifully controlled exploration of the body of a doofus/genius. He does what Martin’s play does best: be funny.

When the play hits the mark, it’s fantastic. It’s when it gets bogged down in Martin’s self-importance that things get a little less exciting. Martin writes like a man trying to assure his own genius - as if by controlling Einstein and Picasso he will enter their league. Unfortunately, as a writer for the theatre, his absurdist musings aren’t exactly up there with Ionesco or Stoppard. It’s when the script isn’t so self-conscious of its own perceived brilliance that it’s at its best.

However, a few self-conscious Martin moments here and there can be easily ignored when watching such an eminently enjoyable work performed by actors who are clearly having a fantastic time. Mat Millay as Schmendimann – a man who believes himself on par with Einstein and Picasso because he’s invented a building material made from asbestos, radium and kitten paws – is an exemplar of theatrical enjoyment, and it rubs off on the audience.

Picasso At The Lapin Agile is pure entertainment, and it throws in the occasional genuine insight as well. Totally recommended.

(Originally published in The Brag).