SALISBURY — A depraved Frenchman walks into a bar…

What would happen if Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein debated the merits of art versus science to an imbibed audience of misfits?

That hypothetical scenario played out on the Lee Street theatre stage last weekend in an unconventionally brief four-night run. An eclectic cast brought Steve Martin’s “Picasso at Lapin Agile” to life for audiences during a special show that was delivered by a nudge from the Blanche and Julian Robertson Foundation to promote the Modern Masterpieces exhibit at Waterworks Visual Arts Center.

The scene is set from the get go by Gaston’s entrance. With a cigarette hanging from his mouth, Steve Schreur’s elderly character, the lovable tramp, finds his way to your heart with little effort and his way to the bathroom with increasing frequency. Freddy the bar owner, played by Mason Livers, provides the reliable back stop for the banter that proceeds, combining a witty conscience that only a server of suds could obtain.

The cast is joined by a young physicist, Albert Einstein, played by an age-appropriate Grant Coffey, who evokes the play’s thematic element immediately, asking the question only a theorist could, “Will she arrive to meet me?” He awaits a similarly theoretical countess played by Lauren Newell.

Steady handed and earnest Germaine (Raquel Oden) brings a women’s sarcastic and abrupt delivery to the disparate bar room conversation. Suddenly an affectionate but naive Suzanne (Grayce Pittman) appears and shares the account of her impromptu yet seductive encounter with the play’s namesake. Suzanne hopes to find Picasso at Lapin Agile where he is said on occasion wet his whistle.

When an art dealer, portrayed by Keira Whittemore, arrives the formidable Matisse’s artwork is on display for the bar goers. But then, Matisse’s greatest rival, Pablo Picasso (Rylan Lowe), arrives and brings the force of a punch delivered by a prime George Foreman. Instantly, the womanizing Picasso takes charge of the stage, begging to be adored. Unethical yet somehow likable, Picasso wiggles across the stage, evoking an impassioned reverence for his own artistic majesty yet unable to hide the mounting insecurity of his contemporary Matisse’s mastery of the medium.

Soon Picasso and Einstein engage. Who is to have the greatest impact on the coming 20th century? Perhaps neither. Destiny Holloway’s Charles Dabernow Schmendiman insists his name will be the one prescribed to humanity’s greatest achievements. Who is Charles Schmendiman? Why the creator of a radium-based construction material, of course, with his own love interest, the female admirer played by Abby Leichman.

As the play proceeded, the audience discovered that Einstein’s craft and Picasso’s painting was not so dissimilar. Each painted the world in a way that the world had never seen before. To the surprise of the crowd, a fourth influencer arrived at the 11th hour — a man from Memphis. The time-traveling Elvis Presley (Tim Hager) stops into the bar for a revelatory message to the young Einstein and Picasso about how their work will resonate with the coming ages.

The stars come out and a final toast braces the audience for the imminence of a century that welcomes the pursuits of both.

At the risk of editorializing, Picasso at Lapin Agile delivered a resonating message. The show was not around for long, but its message is one for the centuries.