While audiences across the U.S. are enjoying the national tour of Steve Martin's comedy, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Canadian theatregoers have only two more days to catch a homegrown mounting of the show at the Vancouver Playhouse.

The "what-if" premise of Lapin Agile has painter/sculptor Pablo Picasso encountering physicist Albert Einstein in a Parisian bar, circa 1904. There they discuss art, science, women and -- Elvis.

Since its premiere at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre in October 1994, Picasso has received much critical acclaim. October 1995, the show opened in New York, where it garnered the 1996 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway play. The New York cast then toured to Theatre on the Square in San Francisco, where the sold-out run was extended for several months.

Though Martin has been a comedian/actor/film director for over two decades, Picasso was his first play. Its success spurred him on to write Wasp And Other Magic Plays, which was produced at the Public Theatre Off-Broadway.

The Playhouse staging, by Peter Hinton, features Alex Ferguson (Picasso), David Storch (Einstein), Norman Armour, Kelly McIntosh, Wendy Noel, Roger Shank, Daryl Shuttleworth and Allan Zinyk. Designing the show are Carolyn M. Smith (set/costumes) and Gerald King (lighting). For tickets (C $35.50-39.50) and information on Picasso at the Lapin Agile at The Playhouse, 160 West 1st Ave., in Vancouver, call (604) 873-3311.

-- By David Lefkowitz