Arts News

Steve Martin to fund banned play

Mar 16, 2009, 20:50 GMT

US actor Steve Martin poses during the photocall on his film \'Pink Panther 2\' at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany, 13 February 2009. EPA/ALINA NOVOPASHINA

Los Angeles (dpa) - American comic and satirist Steve Martin is to fund a performance of his play Picasso At The Lapin Agile after it was banned at an Oregon high school because of 'adult content.'

The 1993 play portrays a fictitious meeting in a bar between Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso, during which they discuss the merits of art and science. But its performance at La Grande High School in Oregon was banned last week after the head teacher received a petition signed by 127 people objecting to its staging in a bar.

In a letter to the local La Grande Observer newspaper, Martin said he was prepared to fund an off-campus performance because he did not want his play 'acquiring a reputation it does not deserve'.

'The play has been performed, without incident, all over the world by professional and amateur companies, including many high schools,' said Martin. He wrote that, contrary to the protests, the play was not about 'people drinking in bars and treating women as sex objects.'