The year is 1904, just before Picasso painted Les demoiselles d’Avignon and Einstein developed his theory of relativity. The great painter and scientest meet in a Parisian bar called the Lapin Agile. They are still in their twenties and virtually unknown. They argue about who is the greater visionary. As they make predictions about the future, Elvis pays a visit and competes with their genius.
Credits
Creative team
By
Steve Martin
Directed by
David Wheeler
Directed by
David Wheeler
On Broadway, he directed Richard III with Al Pacino, and The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, for which Mr. Pacino won the Tony Award for Best Actor. Regional theatres include the Guthrie Theatre, Alley Theatre, Paper Mill Playhouse, Berkeley Rep, Arizona Theatre Company, Pittsburgh Playhouse, and the Charles de Rochefort Theatre in Paris, where he directed the French premiere of Edward Albee's The Zoo Story.
As the artistic director of the Theatre Company of Boston (TCB) from 1963 to 75, Mr. Wheeler directed over eighty productions. Among these were ten by Pinter, seven by Brecht, five by Albee, nine by Beckett, two by O'Neill, and numerous works by new writers such as Ed Bullins, Jeffrey Bush, John Hawkes, Adrienne Kennedy, and Sam Shepard. Through these productions and others, he helped to launch the careers of then-unknown actors including Paul Benedict, Larry Bryggman, John Cazale, Stockard Channing, Blythe Danner, Robert DeNiro, Robert Duvall, Hector Elizondo, Spalding Gray, Paul Guilfoyle, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Jon Voight, Ralph Waite, and James Woods. His film The Local Stigmatic (with Mr. Pacino)—adapted from the play by Heathcote Williams—was presented at the Montreal Film Festival and screened at the Whitney Museum and the MOMA. It will be released in 2006.
Mr. Wheeler's honors include the Elliot Norton Award for his work on Misalliance, the St. Botolph Club Foundation's Award for Distinction in the Performing Arts, and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Award. He has taught and directed at Harvard University, Boston University, MIT, Brandeis, Barnard, Colorado College, and Circle-in-the-Square. He has directed student productions at U.N.C. Chapel Hill, U.C. Irvine and Long Beach, and Évora, Portugal. After receiving his masters at Harvard, Mr. Wheeler trained with José Quintero in New York during the great "O'Neill years" of the 1950's.
Set design by
Christine Jones
Set design by
Christine Jones
Christine Jones, the set designer for Nocturne, previously designed The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew, Man and Superman, When the World Was Green (A Chef's Fable), Hot 'n' Throbbing, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Silence, Cunning, Exile, and The L.A. Plays for the American Repertory Theater. Her other credits include The Green Bird (for which she received Drama Desk and Outer Critics' Circle Award nominations) for the New Victory Theatre in New York, Texts for Nothing and Richard II for the New York Shakespeare Festival, Tartuffe and Richard III for Hartford Stage, and sets and costumes for Iolanthe at Glimmerglass Opera.
Costume design by
Catherine Zuber
Costume design by
Catherine Zuber
Catherine Zuber has created the costumes for Richard II, The Doctor's Dilemma, and over forty other A.R.T. productions including Three Farces and a Funeral, Antigone, Loot, The Idiots Karamazov, Ivanov, Phaedra, The Merchant of Venice, Valparaiso, The Imaginary Invalid, The Taming of the Shrew, Peter Pan and Wendy, The Bacchae, Man and Superman, The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, Woyzeck, The Wild Duck, The Naked Eye, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Tartuffe, Ubu Rock, Waiting for Godot, The Oresteia, Shlemiel the First, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, A Touch of the Poet, What the Butler Saw, The Cherry Orchard, and Orphée. Ms. Zuber's credits include work at Lincoln Center, The Joseph Papp Public Theater, Goodman Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, Mark Taper Forum, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage Company, La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Houston Grand Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera, among others. Her Broadway credits include The Triumph of Love (Connecticut Critics Circle Award and Drama Desk nomination), Ivanov (Drama Desk nomination), The Sound of Music, Twelfth Night, The Red Shoes, London Assurance, The Rose Tattoo, and Philadelphia Here I Come. Ms. Zuber was the recipient of the 1997 Obie Award for sustained achievement in design. She is the costume designer for La Fête des Vignerons de 1999, the massive Festival of the Winegrowers in Vevey, Switzerland.
Lighting design by
John Ambrosone
Lighting design by
John Ambrosone
Lighting Designer John Ambrosone has designed over thirty productions for the American Repertory Theater, including Lysistrata, Absolution, Marat/Sade, Othello, Animals and Plants, Mother Courage (2001 Elliot Norton Design Award), The Doctor's Dilemma, Three Farces and a Funeral, Nocturne, Ivanov, The Cripple of Inishmaan, The King Stag, Boston Marriage, Charlie in the House of Rue, Valparaiso, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, How I Learned to Drive, Nobody Dies on Friday, Man and Superman, The Old Neighborhood, When the World Was Green (A Chef's Fable), Alice in Bed, Slaughter City, and Buried Child. On Broadway he designed The Old Neighborhood. Work in resident theaters includes the Alley Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, the Coconut Grove Playhouse, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Walnut Street Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company, and Arena Stage. Mr. Ambrosone also has designed in Singapore, Moscow, Japan, Brazil, Taiwan, Mexico, Germany, and France.
Sound design by
Christopher Walker
Sound design by
Christopher Walker
Christopher Walker has composed music and designed sound for We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!, Phaedra, Beckett Trio: Eh Joe, Ghost Trio, and Nacht und Traüme, and An Evening of Beckett, and designed sound for The King Stag, Loot, The Idiots Karamazov, Ivanov, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Charlie in the House of Rue, The Merchant of Venice, Valparaiso, The Taming of the Shrew, The Bacchae, The Wild Duck, Woyzeck, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Wild Duck, Alice in Bed, Slaughter City, Buried Child, Ubu Rock, The Threepenny Opera, The Accident, Demons, Waiting for Godot, The Oresteia, Hot 'n' Throbbing, The America Play, A Touch of the Poet, The Cherry Orchard, What the Butler Saw, and Those the River Keeps at the A.R.T. Previously he composed music and designed sound for productions at the Intiman Theatre, the Bathhouse Theatre, and the Alice B. Theatre. He also scores for dance and has composed for the Allegro Dance Festival, the Bumbershoot Festival, and On The Boards.
Cast
Freddy
Paul Benedict
Freddy
Paul Benedict
Paul Benedict (Hirst in No Man's Land) began his theater career in Boston in 1961 at the Image Theatre on Charles Street, followed by six seasons at David Wheeler's Theatre Company of Boston from 1963 to 1968 before he headed for New York. Favorite Broadway roles include Charlie Hughes in Eugene O'Neil's two-character classic Hughie (opposite Al Pacino) at Circle in the Square; Mayor Shinn in Susan Strohman's revival of Meredith Willson's The Music Man at the Neil Simon; off-Broadway he appeared in Jules Feiffer's Little Murders and Feiffer's The White House Murder Case and Terrence McNally's It's Only a Play, among others. He has performed at many of the country's resident theaters and was seen at the American Repertory Theater as Chulkaturin in Journey of the Fifth Horse and as Freddy in Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile. His numerous directing credits include Frank Conroy's Any Given Day on Broadway; Terrence McNally's Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune and Cathy Najimi and Mo Gaffney's The Cathy and Mo Show off-Broadway; and many productions in resident theaters. Film credits include The Freshman, The Goodbye Girl, Waiting for Guffman, The Addams Family, and Taking Off, as well as many television appearances.
Gaston
William Young
Gaston
William Young
Germaine
Alexandria Loria
Germaine
Alexandria Loria
Albert Einstein
Thomas Derrah
Albert Einstein
Thomas Derrah
A.R.T.: 119 productions, including R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Myster) OF THE UNIVERSE (R. Buckminster Fuller), Cabaret (Fraulein Schneider), Endgame (Clov), The Seagull (Dorn), Oliver Twist (also at Theatre for a New Audience and Berkeley Repertory Theatre), The Birthday Party (Stanley), Highway Ulysses (Ulysses), Uncle Vanya (Vanya), Marat/Sade (Marquis de Sade), Richard II (Richard). Broadway: Jackie: An American Life (23 roles). Off-Broadway: Johan Padan (Johan), Big Time (Ted). Tours with the Company across the U.S., with residencies in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and throughout Europe, Canada, Israel, Taiwan, Japan and Moscow, and has recently been performing Julius Caesar in France. Other: I Am My Own Wife, Boston TheatreWorks; Approaching Moomtaj, New Repertory Theatre; Twelfth Night and The Tempest, Commonwealth Shakespeare Co.; London’s Battersea Arts Center; five productions at Houston’s Alley Theatre, including Our Town (Dr. Gibbs, directed by José Quintero); and many theatres throughout the U.S. Awards: 1994 Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence, 2000 and 2004 IRNE Awards for Best Actor, 1997 Los Angeles DramaLogue Award (for title role of Shlemiel the First). Television: Julie Taymor’s film Fool’s Fire (PBS American Playhouse), "Unsolved Mysteries," "Del and Alex" (Alex, A&E Network). Film: Mystic River (directed by Clint Eastwood), The Pink Panther II. He is on the faculty of the A.R.T. Institute, teaches acting at Harvard University and Emerson College, and is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.
Suzanne
Tresha Rodriguez
Suzanne
Tresha Rodriguez
Sagot
Will LeBow
Sagot
Will LeBow
Vlad Tepes/the Functionary in The Communist Dracula Pageant. A.R.T.: Fifty-four productions, including Alfed in Cardenio, Conspirator in Julius Caesar, Niels Bohr in Copenhagen, Eddie Darko in Donnie Darko, A Marvelous Party!, Mr. Brownlow in Oliver Twist (also at Theatre for a New Audience and Berkeley Repertory Theatre), Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, Garcin in No Exit, Kulygin in Three Sisters, Uncle Jacob, Innkeeperess, Head Waiter in Amerika, Jupiter in Dido, Queen of Carthage, Valère in The Miser, Goldberg in The Birthday Party, Egeus and Peter Quince in A Midsummer Night's Dream, several roles in Highway Ulysses, the President of the Senate in Lysistrata, Marat in Marat/Sade, Brabantio and Lodovico in Othello, Dantly in Animals and Plants, the Father in Nocturne, Sir Ralph Bloomfield Bonington in The Doctor's Dilemma, Gregory Smirnov and Gonov in Three Farces and a Funeral, Heiner Müller in Full Circle, Borkin in Ivanov, the State Trooper, Policeman, Grave Digger, and Grandfather in We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!, Dr. McSharry in The Cripple of Inishmaan, Karl Hudlocke in The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, Argan in The Imaginary Invalid, Gremio in The Taming of the Shrew, Tiresias in The Bacchae, the title role and other parts in Shlemiel the First, the Doctor in Woyzeck, Hjalmar in The Wild Duck, Brighella in The King Stag, Will in Six Characters in Search of an Author, Mother/Father in Alice in Bed, King Wenceslas/McGreedy in Ubu Rock, Cléante in Tartuffe, Sebastian in The Tempest, Murray in Demons, Exeter in Henry V, Aegisthus and Chorus in The Oresteia, Sagot in Picasso at the Lapin Agile, the Earl of Westmoreland in Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, and Lord Chief Justice in Part 2. Other credits include The Rivals and Melinda Lopez's Sonia Flew (Huntington Theatre), Twelfth Night (Feste, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company), Brian Friel's Faith Healer (Gloucester Stage Company), Shear Madness (all male roles), the Boston Pops premiere of How the Grinch Stole Christmas (narrator). Film: Next Stop Wonderland. Television: the Cable Ace Award–winning animated series Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist (voice of Stanley).
Picasso
Bill Camp
Picasso
Bill Camp
Mike in Olly's Prison. A.R.T.: Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 (Prince Hal), Henry V (King Henry), Picasso at the Lapin Agile (Picasso), Long Day's Journey Into Night (Jamie—Elliot Norton Award, Best Actor), Richard II (Bollingbrooke), The Provok'd Wife (Sir John Brute). Broadway: St. Joan, The Seagull, Jackie: An American Life. Off-Broadway: Homebody/Kabul (Obie Award), Lydie Breeze, The Demons, New York Theatre Workshop; Macbeth, Theatre for a New Audience; Measure for Measure, One Flea Spare, Joseph Papp Public Theater. Resident: Brooklyn Academy of Music, Mark Taper Forum, the Guthrie Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Hartford Stage. Television/Film: The Dying Gaul, Rounders, In and Out, Reversal of Fortune, Law and Order, Joan of Arcadia, The Great Gatsby.
Charles Dabernow Schmendiman
Jon Blackstone
Charles Dabernow Schmendiman
Jon Blackstone
Countess
Sarah Newhouse
Countess
Sarah Newhouse
Sarah Newhouse has appeared at the A.R.T. as Clarice in The King Stag, as The Countess and The Female Admirer in Picasso at the Lapin Agile by Steve Martin, and as Witch #1 and the Gentlewoman in Alvin Epstein's production of Macbeth. Ms. Newhouse has just finished a four-month run playing Barbara DeMarco in Shear Madness at the Charles Playhouse in Boston. She has also performed at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, Stamford Theatre Works, and the Hangar Theater. Her New York credits include Manhattan Punch Line, Synchronicity Space, Theatre for the New City, and the Kraine, as well as numerous productions on Theatre Row. She is a graduate of the A.R.T./MXAT Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard, where some of her roles included Phebe in As You Like It, La Dame Shrimpesse in The Lady From Maxim's, and Gussie in Lydie Breeze. She has been featured in two independent films and is slated to work on an upcoming independent film about the life of the composer Dvorak in Ameria; Spillville. Her TV credits include "As the World Turns," MTV, and "Saturday Night Live." She is a native of New York City.
Admirer
Shauna Hewrose
Admirer
Shauna Hewrose
A Visitor
Christopher Johnson
A Visitor