Stage

	Matt Johnson Fernando Duran as Picasso lectures his friends at the Lapin Agile bar on the finer points of art in the Friday premiere of "Picasso."

On stage at the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts was the premier of the Steve Martin comic farce "Picasso at the Lapin Agile." Those who remembered Martin as one of those "wild and crazy guys" from 1970s episodes of Saturday Night Live or as "The Father of the Bride" undoubtedly went into the performance expecting to see Steve Martin comedy in this play. I know I did.

I can't say that I was disappointed, but clear from the opening curtain is the fact that there is much more to "Picasso" than Martinesque comic quips and pratfalls.

Set in a Paris bar in 1904, "Picasso" dabbles in history by bringing two of the most important men of the 20th century -- Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein -- over drinks and conversation. Picasso, played by WICA newcomer Fernando Duran, is a consummate womanizer who, the audience discovers, also paints. Devin Matthews, a regular in local high school productions over the past few years, plays a young and arrogant Einstein who is, in his own way, also a womanizer.

Surrounding them on the stage are a cast of actors playing bar patrons, bar tenders, love interests, admirers and a few abrasive townfolk -- all of whom have something to say about art, science and love.

In the lead roles, Duran and Matthews are good choices. Their true youth plays well as they make like the young painter and young physicist. Duran gives his audience good reason to believe in Picasso the ladies man -- he is smooth, expressive and charming.

Matthews, on the other hand, plays a no-nonsense scientist with rigid body movements and speech that show Einstein as a man who is always itching for a fight when it comes to the debate over science.

Both parts are most alive when these characters interact with "Picasso's" two female leads, Laura Persaud and Cynthia Smithers. As Picasso's short-term lover, Persaud, smolders on stage, driving every male in the Lapin Agile to distraction. A veteran actor, she delivers her lines smoothly and lives comfortably in the world on stage -- so much so that at some points in the play, other actors seem caught a bit off guard when speaking to her.

Smithers, who is making her third appearance at WICA, seems to run the show through her barmaid's character. She is sharp, incisive and funny and, when lecturing young Picasso, serious enough to leave the audience wondering why any woman would put up with his smarmy, charming behavior.

Other characters in the production simply seem to be there to add color and depth to "Picasso." As art dealer Sago, James Enslow leads the cast into an in-depth discussion on art that gives more the feeling of philosophy than comedy.

Barton Cole, playing the smarter-than-he-looks bartender, Freddy, is much the glue that held opening night together. His snappy, funny dialogue draws some of the biggest laughs in the show. He is also a caring nursemaid to Gaston (Peter Lawlor), an ancient barfly whose mind is better suited to keeping track of bodily functions than memories.

Audiences who see "Picasso" during the next two weekends will also enjoy WICA regular Kira Keeny as Einstein's mathematically brilliant but romantically challenged girlfriend, Damien Cortez as wild sham inventor Schmendiman, and Tom Harris, who lends his incredible voice and kooky expressions to his role as the Stranger from the Future -- a stranger who bears a remarkable resemblance to Elvis.

Together, these actors -- coached by rookie director Adam Michard -- are more than the sum of their parts. Though opening night suffered from timing problems at several points, "Picasso" is a play that gets an audience thinking about more than just the set up "So Picasso and Einstein walk into a bar." It is a play that leaves a person laughing, and thinking about why.

Overall, "Picasso" is great Whidbey Island theater. To miss it would simply be artless.