nothin Einstein Meets Picasso | New Haven Independent

Einstein Meets Picasso

He’s conquered the space-time continuum! He’s aged not a bit! He’s as cute and disheveled as ever. He’s back and waiting for the world to recognize his genius, giving us the skinny on how energy equals mass times the speed of light. Squared.

Robbie Tann’s explanation, in an exclusive interview with a physics-challenged Independent reporter, unfolded in the green room at the Long Wharf Theater, where he and co-star Grayson Dejesus awaited the start of rehearsal for Picasso at the Lapin Agile.

Allan Appel Photo

Deep thinking rehearsed by Picasso (Dejesus) and Einstein (Tann.)

Steve Martin’s popular antic exploration of creativity in art and science, with a focus on the eternal verities of Elvis Presley, opens on Nov. 26 and runs through Dec. 21.

The play, which finds the 20th-century founders of modern science and modern art in their twenties at a bar in Paris, represents a challenge for actors: How do you convey the physical looks as well as the interior lives of icons?

Tann, a Dallas-born actor enjoying his debut at Long Wharf, said that when he decided to audition, he was sporting a full beard. He checked in with his manager who agreed that the beard should go but some hair should be saved. Do you think I should go for the stash?” he recalled querying the manager.

Go for it,” came the sage reply. Tann aced the stash and the audition with the play’s director, Long Wharf’s artistic director Gordon Edelstein.

If Tann looks like young Einstein, Dejesus, at five feet ten and lean, is a completely different physical type from Picasso, who was short and sturdy. I looked at the text, who this guy was, and how he enters the room,” said Dejesus, a Palo Alto, California native whose comic roles have included a lovable idiot in Alan Bennett’s The Madness of George III and Algernon in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.

The key for him to unlock Picasso’s character is the first line he says as he enters the bar: I’ve been thinking about sex all day.”

Sex and women are muses for Picasso, but his work is everything, Dejesus said of his character. In the play, he’s broke, but on the verge of fame, and all these women [are drawn to him]. It’s a lot to take on,” he said.

Tann said he did a lot of research on Einstein and how he did experiments inside his head as he sat bored in the patent office where he worked. Tann explained to a reporter the difference between the special theory and general theory of relativity. Forgive me if I decline to summarize.

We read up on our people,” Tann said, but at the end of the day it’s Steve Martin’s creation.”

Yet Martin’s choosing to portray Picasso and Einstein as young men just glimpsing their potential — not yet fully confident of it and surely not being confirmed by the outside world — speaks directly to both Tann and Dejesus.

It’s like actors. He [Einstein] was working a job in a patent office so he could do what he loved to do. We can relate to that — like any young person struggling to do what they want to do,” said Tann.

And Picasso? Could Dejesus relate?

His art was always more important to him than his sex life,” said Dejesus. Picasso is a narcissist but when he’s pursing a woman, he absolutely adores her and he is true in the moment. And similarly with his art work.”

He and Tann both reject the notion that play’s women — Germaine, the bartender’s girlfriend, and Suzanne, Picasso’s current flame — are in any way instruments or used by the men. Germaine is strong, street-wise, confident,” Dejesus said, and puts Picasso in his place.

It would also be a big mistake to see this play as a Steve Martin romp, said Tann. There are gags and jokes, many of the Marx Brothers punning variety. But Edelstein, according to the actors, is conceiving of the play as a kind of jazz composition. We all have our solos, our strong moments, and others in the group support it,” said Dejesus.

I have a section where I explain the theory of relativity. That’s really exciting for an audience. If it’s done with joy, the audience will enjoy it,” said Tann.

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