Grey Blanco

Picasso at the Lapin Agile, written in 1995 by the comedian Steve Martin, is a pleasant, light-hearted fantasy despite its focus on three of the serious men who rocked the 20th century, Einstein, Picasso and a third great man who is a mystery until almost the end. Their fictional meeting occurs in 1904 in a real Paris café that was the haunt of artists and intellectuals. At the time, the unknown physicist and the already famous modern artist were both in their 20s and on the verge of the breakthroughs that would help shape the 20th century.

In this telling, Einstein (Jeremy Gwin) and Picasso (Grey Blanco) are a study in contrasts. Gwin's physicist is thoughtful, pleasant and otherworldly; Blanco's artist is an obnoxious, vain sexual predator who manages to deliver some of the play's best lines despite his rather repulsive over-the-top persona. The two young men's confrontation is mediated by several experienced actors, notably the impeccably competent Nathan Chavez as the fastidious café proprietor Freddy; Arthur Alpert as the the coolly hilarious elderly patron Gaston; and the sympathetic Leigh-Ann Santillanes as Freddy's wife Germaine.

Although the play is more about laughs than profundity, several of its lines are memorable. "This is the night the earth fell quiet and listened to a conversation," Picasso remarks. But Gaston has the more accurate if less articulate summary, "You get two geniuses together in a room and ... wow!" When Picasso is accused of painting dreamscapes, he replies, "I'm dreaming of the billions yet to come."

Some of the comedy is more a matter of stage business than dialog. When Einstein first enters, his mop of hair is neatly combed. Remarking, "I am not myself today," he violently shakes his head until his hair stands straight up in a remarkable simulacrum of the famous photograph of Einstein.

Despite the overwhelming presence of genius in the café, the characters are no more perspicacious than the ordinary run of humanity. "This century will be better," Einstein says. "This will be known as the century of peace."

Director Martin Andrews, who comes to the Vortex from his Midwestern gig as director of the Working Group Theatre in Iowa City, skillfully keeps the 11 characters in motion and—crucial in comedy—controls the timing down to the microsecond.

Threatening to overshadow the play itself, however, is the Vortex's new venue at 2900 Carlisle NE, an old building bought and renovated at a cost of $850,000 (the company is still raising money to complete the work). Compared to the Vortex's old black box as well as to most of the other small theaters in the city, the stage seems spacious, with the audience arrayed on two sides in a steeply stepped "L." The lobby is roomy enough to easily accommodate, on the night I was there, a champagne buffet. The whole space is bright, airy and cheerful. The only problem I observed was one of temperature control, with frigid air conditioning at the beginning and overheating flood lights later on.

The Vortex, one of the oldest and most accomplished of the city's nearly 50 theatrical companies, is to be congratulated on this new beginning.

The play continues Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.and Sundays at 2 p.m. through September 28, 2014. For reservations and information call 247-8600 or go to vortexabq.org.

Photo: Alan Mitchell

--Wally Gordon