Like his rewritings of Picasso and Einstein, the two sides of Steve Martin star in this petite and amusing play. Martin toys with discussions that might arise from Picasso and Einstein meeting by chance in a French bar. He gives the characters a passion for their respective arts. Some dialogue waxes philosophic, but only lightly so. You needn't worry about this play becoming too heady. In fact, you’ll sense Martin looking at every pause to inject this script with his old style brand of silliness. This is the Martin I really enjoy.

But the play takes some time to get its bearings; stiff, uncomfortable, awkward for the first 7 or 8 minutes. After that, the characters begin to jell. Jonathan Biver is a great cast for the young Einstein both in physical deamnor and characterization. Brandon Morgan also makes for a strongly confident Picasso. Their performances, and that of Betsy Mugavero anchor the play. There is a "surprise" third icon from last century, but despite Martin taking pains to add mystery by listing him simply as "a visitor" on the playbill, such efforts are all for naught. His appearance falls flat, I'm not sure if that's due to the scripting or in the realization.

Overall, amusing is just the right word. Though, probably mostly a comedy, it's not a laugh riot. To some degree, it's academically amusing as well, but only, as mentioned earlier, lightly so. Afterwards my girlfriend asked me, "Why did he make that play for us?" It's such a simple question, but I think it goes right for the throat. With such lofty personalities, I think we were expecting to be left with a larger wisdom, a shiny insight to take home and ponder. Lacking that, we would have been happy with some drama affecting on an emotional level. Instead, we were left with a pleasantly amusing 70 minutes. Was that Martin's goal? If so, well done.

-- Books by Author/Illustrator Ross Anthony --