Steve Martin’s award-winning comedy, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, opens the FIU Theatre Department’s 2003-’04 season for eight performances in October at the FIU-University Park Wertheim Performing Arts Center.

The critically acclaimed play centers around the fantastical meeting of 20-somethings Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein in a French bar. The two become instant rivals, battling wits about art, probability and the future. The play takes place in the Lapin Agile, made famous by Picasso’s painting, and unfolds with the two characters on the cusp of a major breakthrough in the arts and sciences.

Winner of the 1995 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Play and Best Writer, this clever comic hit bursts with profound social commentary and an array of fascinating characters. Although already established as a comedic actor and screenwriter, Picasso was Martin’s first play. The show debuted at the Promenade Theater on Broadway and ran for more than 250 performances.

Rafael Olivera, a graduate of the Masters of Fine Arts Acting program at Rutgers University and an FIU alumnus, will make his directing debut with the production, introducing a new generation of theater at FIU.

Performances will run Oct. 9-12 and Oct. 16-19. Showtimes will be Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Ticket prices are $6, $8 and $10. To reach the Box Office, please call 305-348-2789 or send an email to theatre@fiu.edu.

The FIU-University Park campus is located at S.W. 107 Ave. and S.W. 8 Street.