Two masterful artists--Gauguin and van Gogh--come alive in a
vibrant exploration of friendship, art, and madness
Two painters--Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh--are living
together in the sleepy town of Arles in 1888. Soon, Gauguin,
frustrated by van Gogh's refusal to acknowledge his increasingly
troubled mind, will depart for Paris. In two years, van Gogh will
be dead by his own hand. In the meantime, the friends discuss their
craft; they frequent a local cafe that van Gogh will soon
immortalize; they become acquainted with a young prostitute, Lotte,
who becomes Gauguin's lover; they argue; they paint.
In Derek Walcott's new play, "O Starry Starry Night," two
world-renowned artists come to life as they wrestle both with grand
themes--friendship, loyalty, fame--and with more mundane concerns,
money primary among them. The scenes Walcott sketches summon
several of van Gogh's most famous paintings: "Sunflowers," "The
Night Cafe," "The Bedroom at Arles." His manipulation of
language--van Gogh's eloquent monologues giving way to more
abstract speeches--evokes the painter's descent into madness. Over
the action hangs the threat of violence, of death, which lends the
play a potent urgency; for at least one of the characters, time is
quickly running out.
"O Starry Starry Night" is powerfully wrought, and demonstrates
once again the sharpness of Walcott's eye: as a painter, as a poet,
as a writer, and, above all, as an observer of human follies,
foibles, failings, and aspirations.
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