When Steve Martin was cracking us up as a wild and crazy guy on SNL, who knew that his goofy persona concealed such a sparkling wit and sweet philosophy?

Example: his effervescent comedy “Picasso at the Lapin Agile,” now gracing the PCPA Theater in Solvang. This production bubbles and pops like Champagne, leaving a nice aftertaste of wonder at humanity and all its vagaries.

The Lapin Agile was a real bar in Montmarte at the turn of the last century, and indeed the city’s young artistic geniuses - Picasso, Modigliani, Braque and the like - hung out there. In Martin’s antic imagination, why not a 1904 encounter between the young Picasso and the young Albert Einstein?

Einstein, as he evidently was in real life, is shown here as a romantic young chap in perpetual pursuit of women. Picasso, his biographers have repeatedly said, was equally ardent, if a bit more detached from his feminine prey.

The ladies in the Lapin Agile are Germaine, the lovely barkeep, and Suzanne, a fetching young thing already enamored of Picasso. They were expertly portrayed by Lucy Owen and Rebecca Tourino, respectively.

Brandon Collingsworth portrayed Picasso as obsessed - with his painting - and definitely a player in love’s roundelay, although not very good with names. Brian Monahan was a lanky, likeable Einstein, just as enamored with his physics as Picasso with his art.

Martin threw a couple of supporting characters in to spice things up: Freddy, an aging but dashing chap played by Andrew Philpot, and Gaston, the occasionally profound proprietor and partner of Germaine, in a winning characterization by David Allen Jones.

Directed by Mark Booher, the actors bandied ideas and bon mots with agility, debating the higher truths of art, science and love. The characters of Picasso and Einstein played off one another aptly - two young geniuses at the dawn of the 20th century, breathless with their own potential.

Two subsidiary characters pop up in Act II. One is Schmendiman, a self-promoter played just this side of over-the-top by a very funny Michael Mendelson.

The other is A Visitor, who has something altogether different to say about fame and precocity and the 20th century. Joseph Salazar is poignant in a subtle reading of this important character.

The play runs through Sept. 18 at the pleasant outdoor venue in Solvang. It’s well worth the drive.

COURTESY PHOTO

Caption: Albert Einstein (Brian Monahan, far right) confronts the denizens of the Lapin Agile bar in the PCPA production of Steve Martin’s play.