A Picasso: This Script Rocks (no spoilers)
Jeffrey Hatcher's script is a triumph of structure, which is the reason a play about so much (art vs. politics, inspiration, fame, love/hate relationships both emotional and intellectual...) holds together so well as a story. In lesser hands, this stuff would be all over the map, bloated and alienating. Fortunately, it's constructed as a taut, funny faceoff with enormous scope.
The audience gets brought into the period and the Paris art world through subtle reference and repetition (take note of the artists to whom they refer and in what order), trusting the audience enough to catch on without overdoing it. The play is structured cyclically, setting up and returning to examinations of three self-portraits. In effect, the analysis of Picasso's work becomes a dissection of Picasso's psyche, resulting in a battle of wills.
My favorite part of all this is that Picasso and Miss Fischer constantly force each other to reveal new sides of themselves, acing the trick of having a character evolve in front of an audience. The two actors, in a way, "sell" each other's development, and this, aside from the intellectual fireworks, is what makes the story pop: their relationship is continually shifting, all the way through the end of the show. On one hand, sometimes I feel like I could draw the script out in some kind of diagram (by the way, I count this as a good thing)...on the other, it's vibrant, engrossing, and, dare I say it, snappy.
I've done my best not to drop any spoilers in here. Perhaps once more people have seen the show, I'll feel better about discussing details. What do you think?
In Other News: One More Apprentice
As promised, we have a new apprentice. His name is Keith. Be kind to him, for soon we (myself and Mike) shall mold him in our own image. Muhuhahahahahaha.
(I mean, it's not that hard. He's already a skinny dude with glasses.)
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