The lights rise as Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso exchange ideas over drinks in a bar in Paris; the year is 1904.

This scene can only be found in “Picasso at the Lapin Agile,” a comedy written by actor Steve Martin. Director Nich Radcliffe, a first-year master of fine arts student from Vinton, Iowa, studying directing, presented the drama for his thesis project Friday through Saturday.

“Martin describes [the play] as a lighthearted examination of the creative mind and those personalities and interactions,” he said.

Radcliffe said the play is his own deconstruction of the original 67-page script, which is condensed into 29 pages.

“The focus of the story as I’m telling it is very specifically of Picasso’s journey from his blue period to his rose period, which was the leaping-off point for cubism,” Radcliffe said.

Though there has been humor in every play he has directed, Radcliffe has never produced an out-and-out comedy, he said.

“I find the topic of artistic inspiration to be fascinating,” Radcliffe said. “When you hit the extra gear that really creative people have, it’s sort of inexplicable.”

Radcliffe said the story traces back to find what caused inspiration in a particular moment.

“You’re the same person, really. Or are you?” Radcliffe said. “What is it that caused that change in you forever that makes that creative evolution possible?”

Radcliffe cited his own inspiration for interpreting the play through an essay written by Friedrich Nietzsche, called “The Birth of Tragedy.” This essay focuses on two Greek gods: Dionysus, who symbolizes wine and fertility, and Apollo, who symbolizes prophecy, truth and healing.

“He talks about man being defined by our own individual persona, what we decide we are,” he said. “But that is even chosen based on Apollonian construct. So what does it take to break that and evolve as man, and when I say man, I mean person, and have creative brilliance like Picasso or scientific creative brilliance like Einstein.”

The play is rooted in creative realization and focuses on Picasso and Einstein as they experience inspiration differently from one another and their surroundings.

“We talk about intoxicants and it being the intoxicants that lead you into this veiled world where things are a little cloudy, but somehow more clear,” he said.

Radcliffe said intoxicants could be thought of as the artist’s muse. For some, the muse is alcohol, as it is in the play, but could be everything from music to women.

“That is the theory that I have based the production on,” he said. “The theory that Nietzsche writes about with Dionysus and Apollo and breaking constructs through the use of intoxicants, or muses, is what guided me through my cutting down to the story we tell.”

The goal of directing is to put theories into productions and make them concrete for the audience, Radcliffe said.

He said he does not expect anyone to see the theory behind the play. However, he hopes the audience will understand the ways in which a muse can change one’s life and how that can lead to great creative and personal discovery and evolution.

“See, we use the theory to tell the story,” Radcliffe said.

The characters present the relationship of similarities between the opposite forms of art and science and the impact of a muse on each of them, especially with Picasso.

“I hesitate to use the term muse because there’s a connotative meaning to it and people just attach it to sex or some sort of objective thing,” he said. “But it’s not that simple. When you encounter a muse, it is a holistic impact.”

Radcliffe said the influence is how a muse views the artist and vice versa.

“It’s the way they talk to you, the way they look at you, the way they support your ideas and the way they challenge your ideas,” Radcliffe said. ”Like Picasso says, I can only do this now because of all the things I have felt before.”

The actor portraying Einstein, Richie Lisenby, a first-year graduate student from Dothan, Ala., studying opera musical theater, said the experience was tedious, yet encouraging as an actor.

“A lot of the work was done in trying to get us not to so much act, but just be these characters,” Lisenby said. “[Radcliffe] told us every day to just get out of our heads.”

Wes Ladd, a senior from Mayfield, Ky., studying philosophy, attended the performance and said it was an awesome show with great dialogue and acting.

“In contrasting Einstein, who was very reasoned, and Picasso, who was all passion, it was really cool for them to play off each other in the way that they did,” Ladd said.

Jake Saunders can be reached at [email protected], on Twitter @saundersfj or 618-536-3311.