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OneMansView
, March 23, 2009
(view all comments by OneMansView)
Perhaps, better seen than read (3.5*s)
As a play this work would probably be pretty entertaining; as a book, it is less so. In a play dialog is everything. From a book, more is expected than dialog: narration, context, character development and thinking, some adherence to reality, etc.
Einstein and Picasso meeting in a bar before they are well-known is an interesting concept. There is no need to respect reputations. Einstein in called a pip-squeak immediately, which is excused because the speaker is French. Picasso’s is chided throughout for his fixation on the color blue and bedding women. In one scene, Einstein and Picasso jab at each other over the relevance of their drawings done on the spot as a challenge: a few lines by Picasso, a formula by Einstein, resulting in Einstein being called a fake and Picasso an idiot savant. There is continual banter concerning meaning, randomness, nature of space and time, and the future. The injection of Elvis Presley corroborates the irrelevance of classic time concepts.
The dialog is snappy, frivolous, silly, ironic, quirky, smart, and absurd – over all fun and quick moving. There is no doubt that the play gives the author a platform for his irreverence concerning such matters as religion, celebrity, and the relativity and absurdity of life in the twentieth century, referred to as the age of regret.
PS. This review is concerned with the title play. The others are throw-ins.
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