Picasso at the Lapin Agile Picasso at the Lapin Agile Picasso at the Lapin Agile is a full-length play written by American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician Steve Martin in 1993. The play features the characters of Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso, who meet at a bar called the Lapin Agile (French: "Nimble Rabbit") in Montmartre, Paris. It is set on October 8, 1904, and both men are on the verge of disclosing amazing ideas (Einstein will publish his special theory of relativity in 1905 and Picasso will paint "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" in 1907). At the Lapin Agile, they have a lengthy debate about
Pablo Picasso by which time the artist had started to sign his work "Picasso"; before he had signed "Pablo Ruiz y Picasso". Picasso's Blue Period (1901–1904), characterized by sombre paintings rendered in shades of blue and blue-green, only occasionally warmed by other colours, began either in Spain in early 1901, or in Paris in the second half of the year. Many paintings of gaunt mothers with children date from the Blue Period, during which Picasso divided his time between Barcelona and Paris. In his austere use of colour and sometimes doleful subject matter – prostitutes and beggars are frequent subjects – Picasso