Theatre: The Life of Vincent Van Gogh (4 Stars)

This is a play about Vincent Van Gogh, performed by a theatre group from Stuttgart. It has a minimal cast of only three actors. Joachim Mierau plays Vincent van Gogh and appears in every scene throughout the play. Blerta Mujezic and Jacqueline Weik appear in all the female roles, including Vincent's mother, Vincent's nurses and Vincent's lovers. Notable is that all the dialogue spoken by Vincent, apart from the epilogue, is made up of direct quotes from letters written by Vincent to his younger brother Theo.

The play opens with Vincent in a mental hospital being tended to by two nurses, friendly but firm. If anything, this is shown in an overly positive light. 19th Century mental institutions were rough places which treated the inmates more like criminals than patients.

From here we have a series of flashbacks. We see Vincent as a child who was devoted to his religious mother, but there was distance between him and his father. Vincent claims to have been born twice. (He genuinely said this, as we know because the dialogue is made up of quotes from his letters). On 30th March 1852 his mother had a son called Vincent who died a few hours after birth. Exactly one year later, 30th March 1853, she had another son that she also called Vincent. He claimed to have been the same person, given a second chance at life.

After leaving school Vincent worked first as an art dealer, then as a book salesman. He was a failure in both careers. He became deeply religious and wanted to study theology, but he failed the entrance exam. He spent a short time as a lay preacher, then became a coal miner. (The play says that he was a coal miner, but I haven't managed to verify that this was the case, only that he lived in a mining village). He failed in all his career attempts, so at the age of 27 he decided to become an artist. His brother Theo was a successful art dealer, so it was arranged for Theo to sell his paintings. Vincent regularly sent Theo his paintings, but nobody wanted to buy them. Nevertheless, Theo sent him enough money to live on.

Shortly afterwards Vincent fell deeply in love with his cousin Kee. She rejected him, calling the relationship disgusting, which flung him into depression. Kee was possibly the only woman he ever really loved. After this Vincent lived with a prostitute for two years, claiming that he wanted to share his life with a woman it was impossible to love.

Vincent made friends with the painter Paul Gaugin (who isn't shown in the film). At first they were close friends, but then Vincent claimed Paul had betrayed him. The reason was that Theo was able to sell Paul's paintings but not Vincent's, which Vincent somehow blamed on Paul.

This brings the flashbacks up to the present, when we see the reason for Vincent being in a mental hospital. After an argument with Paul he cut off his own ear and wrapped it up as a gift to a prostitute. Vincent was put in a mental hospital because he was considered a danger to society, but he mocked this judgement, saying that the only person he had ever harmed was himself.

Apart from brief interludes, Vincent spent the last two years of his life in different mental hospitals. He painted as if possessed, producing 840 oil paintings in two years. He shot himself after writing a letter to his brother calling himself a complete failure.

Within a few years Vincent's paintings were finally discovered, and he was soon being hailed as one of the greatest artists ever. In the epilogue Vincent appears as an auctioneer selling his sunflower painting for $39 million in 1987, which set a new record for the world's most expensive painting. After the sale was completed he shot himself again.

The play is emotional and deeply moving. Joachim Mierau portrays Vincent's madness with terrifying realism. We're never allowed to forget who or what he was, because Vincent's paintings are sporadically projected onto the white boards at the back of the stage.

How could the play have been made better? It could have been longer. The first part lasts 90 minutes, but the second part, after the intermission, is rushed and only lasts 30 minutes. The relationship between Vincent and Paul Gauguin could have been shown in more detail, even if it meant adding a fourth actor to the cast. Vincent was an outsider all his life, so his only friend deserved to be shown in more detail.

I'm no art critic, but I see something magical in Vincent Van Gogh's paintings. His madness contributed to his art. A sane man could never have painted so brilliantly. He painted what he saw, and he saw another world. He looked at France and saw Japan. He looked at a calm sky and saw it exploding with colours. Can there ever be another artist like him?