By Sandi Masori
CARLSBAD, California – In the world of theatre, someone who can act, sing and dance is referred to as a triple threat. But what do you call someone who can write, act, and paint?? Well, you can call him Herbert Siguenza. Siguenza, who was formerly the playwright in residence at the San Diego Repertory Theatre, wrote and acted in the one-man play A Weekend With Pablo Picasso which is playing in an encore performance at the New Village Arts theatre in Carlsbad. It debuted back in 2019 and is back for a one-month run that began on Aug. 4.
The show, directed by local Jewish community member Todd Salovey, is a visually stunning masterpiece. I was nervous about attending my first one-man show, thinking it was going to be a long boring monologue or more like a comedy stand-up special. Instead, I found it was like going over to a friend’s house and listening to them talk through their daily routine and thoughts. From the beginning Siguenza, as 76-year old Pablo Picasso, welcomes the audience in as the second cast member almost. Early in the show he identifies us as someone sent by his art dealer to supervise him as he completes a rush order of six paintings and three vases in one weekend.
While he’s doing this, he talks to us about his philosophy on creativity, painting, and play. He shares stories of some of his many women, and about his daughter Paloma. He even reads us some of his poetry. And throughout all of this, Siguenza, as Picasso, is live painting some Picasso-esque pictures that are then auctioned off after the show. The story is based on some of Picasso’s writings, and brilliantly fuses his original quotes with commentary about what was happening in his life and the world at that time (1957.)
Picasso, in Siguenza’s masterful hands, seems down to earth, eccentric, and approachable, and you really do feel like you’re casually hanging out with a new friend. The theater is incredibly intimate, only holding 99 people at a time, so this also added to the feeling of hanging out in a friend’s house.
I really liked one of the scenes in the opening where he receives a bread delivery and, using toothpicks, starts playing with different ways to arrange the bread that will make it look like something else- at one point it’s reminiscent of a wiener dog. I think this scene particularly appealed to me because it felt a little like what we used to do at balloon jams back when I was a professional balloon artist- we would twist something up and then try to see what it looked like, or how it could be embellished to turn into something else. So, it was really gratifying to see an artist playing in that way.
The scene was set in Picasso’s in-home studio. The set was in itself pretty elaborate, but then it also made really good use of projections to carry mood and show other “Picasso” paintings. All of the paintings used in the show were in the Picasso style, but were actually painted by Siguenza. I hear that original Picasso’s can be quite pricey so I’m guessing that’s the reason why. The projections were really quite clever in that sometimes they were localized to a very small area of the stage, and sometimes they covered the entire stage. I found myself wondering how many projectors there were and where they were all hidden to achieve such effect. It really was breathtaking, though at times it may have distracted slightly from the monologue.
The only negative I really could say about the show is that it’s 90 minutes with no intermission, and my bladder and tush could have used a quick mid-show stretch. Other than that, I highly recommend that you take the time to catch this show before it moves on. There are eleven more shows between now and when it closes on September 3rd.
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Sandi Masori is a food and theatre reviewer for San Diego Jewish World. When she’s not covering food or theatre, she helps authors self-publish, hangs out with her kids, and searches for the best sushi in town.