.............Setup and Synopsis
ACT I: The time is late July 1890, one week after Vincent's death.
The period of time covered in this act ranges from the late 1870's until Vincent's first hospitalization in the asylum on September 24th, 1889
ACT II: The time is continuous until after Vincent's death, which occurred on the morning of July 29th, 1890.
THE PLACE: A lecture hall in Paris, France.
SYNOPSIS: It's been a few days since the untimely passing of artist Vincent Van Gogh. At 36, he had been a preacher, a painter, and, most significantly, a pauper. His long-suffering brother Theo, having underwritten his sibling's many career paths over the decades, is angry and upset by the word traveling around town. Everyone from citizens on the street to fellow painters in the café claims that Vincent died deranged, killed by his own hand in an act of suicidal insanity. Calling together friends and family, peers and opponents, Theo hopes to set the record straight once and for all. He wants to discuss his brother's devotion to lost causes. He wants to clear the air about his medical (and mental) conditions. He needs to show society that his seemingly directionless relative was actually a man of great courage and masterful artistic skill, lost in the arenas of love and life, but brilliant in capturing his "impressions" of the world around him. From his earliest sketches to his final finished masterpieces, Theo is convinced that his brother was easily ignored and resoundingly ridiculed based on little more than rumor and innuendo. He plans to show the reality behind the gossip. He wants them to understand his fragile family member, Vincent.
Reworking a previous one-man play called Van Gogh by Phillip Stephens, Vincent’s author, Leonard (Mr Spock) Nimoy drew on over 500 letters between Vincent and his brother Theo and devised this solo piece, incorporating art as well as artifice to provide an evening of insight into a gifted, if haunted, master.
A true labor of love, Vincent is not actually the show you think it is. This brief but powerful presentation is part lecture, part impassioned plea, and all acting acumen. It’s a true tour de force performance here, channeling the more famous Van Gogh while giving the main narrative elements to frequently forgotten brother Theo. In fact, this is really less of a biography and more of a meditation on the meaning of art and artistry in a world that measures success by sales. Even though we are dealing in an era where painters could practice their craft and still be viewed as viable, Theo makes it very clear that Vincent's various mental and physical failings (he was originally thought mad, though he was later diagnosed with epilepsy and, perhaps, schizophrenia) created a much harsher benchmark for his brother to reach. Indeed, because of the magnificence of his work, because of the boundaries he pushed as an impressionist and as a colorist, Vincent was viewed as strange and different. In Nimoy's view, this translated into a kind of communal freakdom. Vincent Van Gogh was viewed as the oddball, the outcast who would prefer to chase coal miners down the shaft, delivering sermons on the Gospel in evangelical fury, rather than conform to the typical mandates of a career artisan.
Selling this previously unheard of historical position this is exactly where Vincent shines. Several times throughout the course of the story, images of Van Gogh's work are matched with beautiful classical music, allowing the actor a chance to rest and reflect. Nothing about Vincent feels forced or undeserved. This is a very funny play, with lots of witty asides and caustic rejoinders cast out on famed friends like Toulouse-Lautrec and Paul Gauguin. We frequently find ourselves lost in the amazing landscapes and haunting words that, together, frame a gifted, troubled spirit. Some may find the In Search Of …-style ending, with filmed material used as a follow-up on some of the questions and concerns the play raises, a little strange, but frankly it feels like a necessity. It allows us to add our own thoughts on the subject, while bringing some kind of closure to the entire Van Gogh mythology.