BLUE PERIOD  By Charles Borkhius

June 4 - 27 Directed by James P. Darvas

While reading John Richardson’s A Life of Picasso (vol.1 1881-1906), the Author became fascinated by a series of incidents following 19-year old Picasso’s arrival in Paris in 1900. These events culminated in the Blue Period, before which, as Norman Mailer suggests in his Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man, “… w

e cannot say [Picasso] possesses a style.”

An emotionally riveting, chaotic narrative began to emerge around several young Spanish painters living in Montmartre, who frequented the Parisian music halls, museums, and bordellos during the turn of the 20th century. Burkhuis found himslef drawn to a central story that involved Picasso, his young painter-friend Carles Casagemas, Germaine, a French model, and Ma

nyac, a Spanish art dealer living and working in Paris.

One of the questions he began to ask was: What led the immensely gifted young Picasso, who soaked up the artistic bohemian lifestyle and cultural “banquet years” of Paris, into the deepest depression of his life? Ironically, Picasso’s near nervous breakdown resulted in producing the Blue Period, an artistic breakthrough that Gertrude Stein characterized as “… the foundation of all his subsequent art.”

The story was after spun around a turbulent love triangle between Picasso, Casagemas, and Germaine. As the Author began to explore all four characters, he became increasingly aware of the potent, conflictual subtexts behind their actions which became the lifeblood of the play. BorkhuisI felt the need to peel away their postures and defense mechanisms to get to the crux of the tragic events that led to Picasso’s dramatic turn from his earlier imitative work to his strikingly original, haunting paintings of the Blue Period.

The challenge was to stay within the essential facts of the true story, while remaining free to explore the themes of betrayal, suicide, psychological transference, and artistic rebirth. I have conflated Certain elements of time, place, and character were conflated yo hopefully bring the story more effectively to the stage.