Let’s Spend A Weekend with Pablo Picasso

Over ten years ago Herbert Sigüenza, best known for his work as a member of Culture Clash, wrote a one-man play about the artist Pablo Picasso. The work had its debut with San Diego Rep and has been a fan of critics and audiences alike around the country ever since. His play, A Weekend with Pablo Picasso, has been filmed and it will be available from CaltechLive! from March 6th – April 4th.

It takes place in 1957. Picasso is living in a house in the South of France. He receives a phone call with a commission too good and too lucrative to pass up. He embarks on fulfilling that obligation and while doing so explains his views of life, love and art to us, the audience.

It’s an immensely satisfying show that remains entertaining throughout its length. A Weekend with Pablo Picasso also calls on Sigüenza’s own skills as a painter and artist as he creates Picasso-esque images throughout the play. After all, you can’t portray the legendary artist without being able to show his work – or your version of it. Sigüenza’s is quite good indeed.

The film was directed by Tim Powell and San Diego Rep associate artistic director Todd Salovey.

On March 6th at 10:30 PM EST/7:30 PM PST [Zoom link] and March 28th at 6:00 PM EDT/PDT [ Zoom link], Sigüenza will participate in live talkbacks via Zoom. You don’t need to have seen the show to watch these talkbacks, but it would certainly be advisable.

Tickets to view A Weekend With Pablo Picasso are $35 per household (excluding fees). They can be purchased here.

Go here to read my interview with Herbert Sigüenza about the show, his passion for Picasso that started at an early age and to see how his own thinking aligns with the man whom he’s playing.

Photo: Herbert Sigüenza in A Weekend with Pablo Picasso (Photo by Daren Scott/Courtesy CaltechLive!)