VINCENT IN BRIXTON. To 16 October.

Manchester

VINCENT IN BRIXTON
by Nicholas Wright

Library Theatre To 16 October 2004
Mon-Thu 7.30pm Fri-Sat 8pm Mat 2,6,9,13,16 October 3pm
Audio-described 13 Oct 16 Oct 3pm
BSL Signed 6 Oct 7.30pm
Captioned 14 Oct 7.30pm
Pre-show Talk 30 Sept 9 Oct 3pm
Runs 2hr 30min One interval

TICKETS: 0161 236 7110
weww.librarytheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 22 September

Biographical speculation exploring love and art in a production that's well worth a look.Both Adolf Hitler and Vincent van Gogh knew the feel of a paint-brush of some description, and both spent time during their youth in England. Nicholas Wright introduces his protagonist as Mr Vincent, salesman for an art-dealer, who has given up trying to make the English pronounce his family name. He's first seen applying for lodgings with forward-thinking widow Ursula Loyer, who runs a small school in her front room. As he frankly admits, his reason was seeing Mrs Loyer's attractive daughter Eugenie in the street.

That shows the Vincent manner, accommodating his name to native tongues yet quietly and politely insistent on having his own way, while committing himself to impulsive action.

There's something of this in his sister Anna, who arrives in the second half. As played by Olivia Darnley, in cap, apron and mop, she's clean and austere as a girl in Vermeer, swabbing and prying where she's not wanted. Yet while Vincent's following his instincts she's using her persistence on behalf of family respectability.

Roger Haines' Library Theatre production follows the National Theatre premiere (seen in the Cottesloe, the West End and on tour) and the Byre Theatre in St Andrews, but it has one first. Unlike those predecessors it has an English, rather than a Dutch, actor as Vincent. Initially Gus Gallagher seems inclined to over-gesture to give a sense of someone translating thoughts into English. But it's momentary problem and he settles to a strong account.

The premiere had two enormous advantages; Richard Eyre's scrupulous, realistically detailed production built round the everyday activities of Ursula's kitchen. And a magnificent performance of the widow by Claire Higgins, charging every moment
with depth and intensity.

Sheila Ruskin can't match that but she gives a strong, solid realisation as the widow whose black mourning, 15-years long, is relieved in the third, summer act when the flowers bloom, the heavy kitchen door stands open and being loved by the young lodger leads her to brighter clothing.

Wright follows a traditional four-scene pattern, moving through the seasons. As in The Seagull there is a leap of a couple of years before the final act. The last half, which impressed less after the grat confrontation between Vincent and Ursula before the interval, now holds up much better. Ensemble work can gain when great acting leaves a vacuum.

Ursula's back in black despair. Vincent had left suddenly and her other lodger Sam has changed his life's direction from necessity. Christopher Pizzey's Sam has changed from hopeful young man to one of the lads, a worker with swinging-arms and a defensive heartiness of manner.

Yet Wright uses his conventional structure with an unconventional dimension. The rise to third act scherzo seems to be followed by last-act gloom. Yet it is in her depression that Ursula achieves her stated ambition, to influence someone for the good.

Earlier Vincent had described a popular print - Dickens' chair, empty but somehow suggesting the writer at work. Later, Ursula told him off for his drawing of a church. Attractive in itself, when she learns of his feelings at the times of drawing, and sees they're not there she condemns it.

Then, in the final seconds, when Haines exceeds even Eyre's production, these two moments are pulled together as inconsequential chat recedes into darkness, and Nick Richings' lighting focuses on the artist catching sight of his old boots on the table, then - following Ursula's lesson - beginning a drawing where his emotional state is infused into the footwear.

It's right she should be sitting behind the boots, the inspiration and teacher, at the moment Mr Vincent, salesman and preacher becomes van Gogh, painter and genius.

Ursula Loyer: Sheila Ruskin
Vincent van Gogh: Gus Gallagher
Eugenie Loyer: Hannah Watkins
Sam Plowman: Christopher Pizzey
Anna van Gogh: Olivia Darnley

Director: Roger Haines
Designer: Judith Croft
Lighting: Nick Richings
Sound: Paul Gregory
Dialect coach: William Conacher
Assistant director: David Kenworthy

2004-09-23 22:34:18