In 1993 comedian and medieval barber, Steve Martin, wrote the very humorous play entitled, Picasso at the Lapin Agile. It wasn't until 1998 that I was able to see this production by the Arizona Theatre Company when I lived in Phoenix -- those were the pre-blog years so I did not prepare a review but let me give you my highest recommendation to see this play.
The overall theme of this play explores the improbable -- the artist, Pablo Picasso, meeting the scientist, Albert Einstein, in a bar in Paris. I have not interviewed Mr. Martin on this point but have to speculate his use of this "art vs. science worlds" theme was inspired by C.D. Snow's book, The Two Cultures, with its focus on how the world of literature and the world of science are unable to communicate.
I was reminded of this play recently after I read several book reviews focused on the "Year of Einstein: 1905 to 2005" designed to celebrate his scientific theories which required every school child to memorize: E = mc2. The books were biographical of course, semi-scientific, and sociological in nature as the authors sought to portray how Einstein revolutionized our world view and scientific knowledge.
Einstein himself is worth an entirely separate posting so I plan to celebrate his year later this with an overview of his career. For now I want to focus this posting on Steve Martin's play. It is well worth seeing although an individual's sense of what is funny is "relative" of course. I plan to see this play again once I find where it is currently on stage.
See you in the stalls assuming we are on the same space/time continuum,
Todd
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