PICASSO: LE MONSTRE SACRÉ Will Make New York Premiere From London's Playground Theatre
Peter Tate stars in the solo show, directed by Olivier winner Guy Masterson, at La MaMa
London's Playground Theatre will present the New York Premiere of PICASSO: LE MONSTRE SACRÉ starring Peter Tate in a visceral, uncompromising portrait of the famed artist. It is directed by 2010 Olivier Award winner Guy Masterson (Broadway's The Shark is Broken) and adapted for solo performance by Tate & Masterson from the play The Loves of Picasso by Terry D'Alfonso. This limited engagement runs June 24 - 28 at La MaMa.
Created for the 50th anniversary year of Picasso's death, PICASSO: LE MONSTRE SACRÉ asks how should he be judged? Picasso was an undisputed genius and visionary artist, yet his obsession with his work often destroyed those he professed to love. Brilliantly incarnated by Peter Tate, in a challenging, powerful, intelligent study, Picasso passionately defends his reputation. It's an explosive, deeply passionate voyage of self-revelation, leaving the audience as his jury... Should we condemn or forgive him? How do we judge our great artists?
PICASSO: LE MONSTRE SACRÉ also features on-screen cameos by Sandra Collodel, Claudia Godi, Margot Sikabonyi, and Milena Vukotic, and costume and set design by Eirini Kariori.
PICASSO: LE MONSTRE SACRÉ runs June 24 - 28, Wednesday - Friday at 7:30pm, Saturday at 3pm & 7:30pm and Sunday at 4pm and 7:30pm. La MaMa is located at 66 East 4th Street (between 2nd & 3rd Aves -- accessible from the F train at 2nd Ave).
Biographies
Peter Tate was trained at Webber Douglas in London and with Stella Adler in New York, where he began his career. Credits there included The Bacchae directed on Broadway by Michael Cacoyannis, and Richard III with the American Shakespeare Company. He returned to London to play a leading role at The National Theatre opposite Alan Bates. An invitation by The Actors Studio New York brought him back to the US to play the co-lead in Rasputin opposite Peter Stormare, who was then Ingmar Bergman's leading actor. More recently he played the lead in Tabloid Caligula at the Brits Off-Broadway at 59E59th St. Since then Macbeth, in Poland, with one of Poland's top directors, Henryk Baranowski, American Justice at The Arts (West End) Babylone (Coventry Belgrade). At The Playground Theatre: Paradise Circus; Shylock in The Merchant of Venice directed by Bill Alexander; and Tate's own One Man. Tate has won numerous awards for his stage version of Odd Man Out in Jerusalem, St Petersburg and Wroclaw. The film adaptation of Odd Man Out has garnered Peter numerous best actor awards at international film festivals.
Guy Masterson studied drama at UCLA and LAMDA. Globally acclaimed as a solo-performer with Under Milk Wood, Animal Farm, Shylock and A Christmas Carol, Guy began directing in 1991 with Peter Shaffer's The Public Ear & The Private Eye. He directed his first solo, Playing Burton about his uncle, the actor Richard Burton and 1993 and since, he has directed 45+ plays, of which 25 were solos. Over 32 consecutive seasons at the Edinburgh Fringe since 1994, Masterson has presented over 150 shows - primarily new works - and directed several of its most celebrated hits; His comedian packed 12 Angry Men (2003) smashed all EdFringe box office records, for which he received Edinburgh's most prestigious prize - The Jack Tinker 'Spirit of the Fringe' Award - among several others. In 2004, he originated the West End hit, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (starring Mackenzie Crook & Christian Slater). Then in 2005, he directed Edinburgh's biggest box office hit to date, The Odd Couple, starring top British comedians Bill Bailey and Alan Davies. In 2009, he produced and directed Morecambe which played in London's West End and won What's On Stage, TMA and The Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment. In 2018, Guy co-wrote and produced and directed The Marilyn Conspiracy, and in 2019 was the originating producer/director on The Shark Is Broken - which transferred to the West End in 2021/22 receiving was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. This transferred to the Golden Theatre on Broadway in August 2023. That year he also co-directed The Marvellous Elephant Man - The Musical in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. In 2024, he produced and directed The Marilyn Conspiracy at the Park Theatre, Off West End, London. In July 2025, he directed a new production for North Shore Musical Theatre of The Shark Is Broken in Martha's Vineyard for the JAWS 50 celebrations. He has given over 5000 solo performances of 11 different solo shows and continues to tour wherever in the world he is invited. He is married for 27 years to Brigitta and father to Indigo and Tallulah.
Terry D'Alfonso received a BA from Hunter College and completed graduate courses in Film and Television at NYU. She was Assistant Director to Giorgio Strehler at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano, Teatro díEuropa and Assistant Director to Steven Frears (Abel's Will) and Kenneth Ives (The Secret Army). She received the Pirandello International Award for her production of The Changeling starring Milena Vukotic. She conceived and directed a series of 20 films about difficult divorce cases, entitled Lasciamoci cosÏ for Italian national broadcaster Rai 2. She also wrote and directed several TV docu-dramas for Swiss-Italian broadcaster RTSI including In Bed With Patch Adams (with Adams playing himself), Cinderella 2001 (presented at the Creteil Film Festival, France) and Tropic of the Senses (a musical on Anais Nin). In 2001, at the Benevento Festival (Italy) and, 2002, at the Guggenheim Museum in Venice, she adapted and directed Picasso's Women with Milena Vukotic. In 2007 and 2008, at the Ghione Theatre in Rome, Terry co-authored and directed Pope Joan. In 2009, also at the Ghione Theatre, she adapted and directed 8 Women by Robert Thomas. In 2010, at the Friends of the Certosa di Capri International Arts Festival, Terry adapted and directed An Interview with the Marchesa, by Paolo Puppa. In 2011, she directed a multi-media version of Picasso's Women starring Vukotic and Margot Sikabonyi. In 2013, she presented her adaptation of The Tempest, entitled Were I Human, at the Rose Theatre in London. Before her untimely death in 2016, Terry finished writing Suicide Lives. Dying to Win... an immersive theatre thriller and was working on a short film about Marguerite Chapin, based on the journals of her nephew, Schuyler Chapin.
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