VINCENT IN BRIXTON. To 21 April.
Ipswich/Salisbury/Colchester/Liverpool
VINCENT IN BRIXTON
by Nicholas Wright
New Wolsey Theatre To 3 March then tour to 21 April 2007
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Wed & Sat 2.30pm
Audio-described 3 March 2.30pm
BSL Signed 2 March Post-show talk 1 March
Runs 2hr 20min One interval
TICKETS: 01473 295900
www.wolseytheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 26 February
Sunday in south London with Vincent comes up bright and fresh.
Nicholas Wright’s play about young Vincent van Gogh’s time lodging in London with a progressively-minded widow and her grown-up daughter during the 1870s, received an immaculate premiere from director Richard Eyre, with Claire Higgins outstanding as Ursula Loyer, in mourning 15 years, surviving by running a school in her front-room and taking in a couple of lodgers.
For anyone who didn’t catch Eyre’s production this is a more than decent alternative. Even with the comparison, it’s well worth a visit.
Wright’s play consists of 4 sustained scenes, each full of incidents that build characters and explore the birth of an artist. The manner’s near-Chekhovian. Only instead of waiting on a samovar these people cook Sunday lunch; characters are forever crossing the stage with a pan of boiled vegetables. And are forever mistaking others’ motives.
Vincent’s still an art-dealer’s agent. His sister Anna arrives for an act from Holland, scrubbing the Loyer home to her own strict standards, while her brother gets mucky in the garden, then leaves to sink into destitution, before discovering his path to art via a pair of dirty boots. He finds a sense of purpose in himself through love, and Ursula’s criticism of his drawings’ emotional detachment.
Philip Cumbus shows a more excitably artistic temperament than Jochum Ten Haaf, the role’s creator, but the moment early on he stops talking in appreciation at the kitchen decor shows Vincent’s instinctive artistic feel. If Anna Lauren’s Anna van Gogh is a rather obviously precise Dutch puritan, she still serves properly as irritant in the plot.
Ursula is the play’s emotional centre. Her brief flowering from mourning-dress, the slow opening-up of her feelings, and her ever-present practicality are all caught by Francesca Ryan. She’s well-contrasted by the carefree humour Claudia Renton brings to her daughter, while Tim Delap’s ideal as the left-leaning Sam, embodying an acceptance of life’s events that marks out the talented from the genius.
Director Peter Rowe contrives a strong conclusion, genius emerging amid everyday unconcern, as Ursula gives a slight touch to realign the boots Vincent is drawing; the last act of help he’ll need.
Ursula Loyer: Francesca Ryan
Vincent van Gogh: Philip Cumbus
Eugenie Loyer: Claudia Renton
Sam Ploughman: Tim Delap
Anna van Gogh: Anna Lauren
Director: Peter Rowe
Designer: Richard Foxton
Lighting: James Farncombe, Ben Payne
Sound: Stuart Brindle
Dialect coach: Guy Holland
2007-03-01 01:04:29