A Picasso Book

THE STORY: Paris, 1941. Pablo Picasso has been summoned from his favorite caf© by German occupation forces to a storage vault across the city for an interrogation. His questioner: Miss Fischer, a beautiful cultural attach© from Berlin. Her assignment: discover which of the three Picasso paintings recently confiscated by the Nazis from their Jewish owners are real. The ministry of propaganda has planned an exhibit, and only the great artist himself can attest to their authenticity. At first Picasso agrees to her request, confirming that the three pictures are indeed his own. But when Miss Fischer reveals that the exhibition is actually a burning of degenerate art, Picasso becomes desperate to save his work and engages in a pressurized negotiation with the equally determined and wily Miss Fischer to hold on to two of his precious children while consigning the third to the flames. A cat-and-mouse drama about art, politics, sex and truth, with a twist at its climax. Artful, remarkable and genuinely dramatic, with impressive sensitivity and wit. - NY Daily News. Sex, art, Nazis, and a classy twentieth-century icon, all wrapped up like a tasty cultural burrito. Expertly done. - Star-Ledger. A polished production with carefully sprung surprises. - NY Times. If I were a betting man (and who isn't in the the theater), I'd wager that we'll be seeing a lot of Jeffrey Hatcher's new play over the next few years‚¬¦brace for a Picasso bonanza. An exceptionally sharp piece of writing coming soon, no doubt, to a theater near you. - NY Sun. An intense confrontational drama. - Miami Herald.