A Picasso Challenges at Greenhouse by Elsinore

I recently returned from a trip to Paris where I stumbled onto the Picasso museum.  The collection there traces his life and art and I saw many pieces I had never encountered before.  Picasso is beloved in Chicago and the Art Institute has done several exhibitions featuring his work and life but here in Paris I saw new things and I was struck by how insanely lucky Picasso was to have not been rounded up and unalived by the Nazi’s.  A Picasso, Elsinore Theatre Ensemble’s current offering now on at the Greenhouse explores a fictional encounter with a Nazi art critic and edges around his precarious position in the depths of WW2.

Jeffrey Hatcher’s two hander is a flawed script that sometimes sidebars into too much telling and not enough showing,  but Jamie Ewing as Picasso and Lori Rohr as his Nazi interrogator “Miss Fischer” elevate the sparring match between these adversaries with skill. Director Daniel KIng keeps the production tight and intellectual in the intimate black box at Greenhouse Theater Center. While Ewing's Picasso lacks the animalistic and instinctual nature of Picasso he completely possesses the intellectual intelligence of his character and ultimately satisfies us with the character’s struggle to maintain his creative autonomy and sense of agency in a battle whose very job is to rob people of their humanity.  Rohr’s Fischer is an eerie and haunting reminder of what happens when people compromise their value system to survive. As a woman trying to navigate a hyper masculine regime she is backed into a corner.  And Picasso we know was so very attractive. 

The tight confines of the Greenhouse space had me closing my eyes and listening to the words of this piece often: it is what the characters say not necessarily how they are saying it that weaves the very uncomfortable web of unsolvable situations. In the end will either of them “win”? This also made me realize this would be a very good audio or radio play. Ultimately Picasso did survive the war– was it luck, his fame, or something else— and he went on to continue his career and art making. A win.  But this play leaves us wondering about outcomes. What does enduring and surviving cost?

 And it leaves us wondering about our own time.

This is not an entertaining light night for the holidays but a thoughtful and uncomfortable dive into a conflict that has become way too current.  “Never again” is right now and this play will leave you with more questions than answers. 

A Picasso is playing Thursdays through Sundays at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N Lincoln Avenue in Lincoln Park. For tickets and information go to  https://ci.ovationtix.com/36644/production/1255700

Photo by Joe Mazza

No part of this article was created using AI

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