Steve Martin's script for Picasso at the Lapin
Agile calls for something that not every set designer has lying around
in the closet: a 19th-century painting of sheep grazing in a pasture.
But serendipity struck when set designer Charles
Steckler (who confesses he was “not at all confident in my ability to
create such a piece”) was making his rounds through an area
second-hand shop. He was looking for picture frames – when he noticed a
small print that fit the bill.
Problem was it was too small – only about 4 by 6
inches – and it had too many sheep.
So Steckler brought the print to a copy center to have
it enlarged and to have some of the sheep digitally erased.
The result is a gauzy, impressionistic-looking work that
hangs over the bar of the Yulman's set of the Lapin Agile.
“Nothing wrong with this picture,” says
Freddy, the owner of the bar in Martin's play. “Got it out of my
grandmother's house just after she died; well, actually, while she was
dying. Sheep in a meadow in the fog. Beautiful.”