The real Vincent

Van Gogh’s Café Terrace at Night reinterpreted for Vansadia’s Vincent

While Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night has inspired music, poetry, films as well as other artworks across the world, the common man is mostly unaware about this influential Dutch, post-Impressionist artist's life despite his fame as a genius after his early death in 1890. A new play attempts to understand his life and works in a unique way.

"The seed of this idea was sown when I started looking at Van Gogh's paintings in a book about Impressionism. In America, I would visit museums that housed his collections. At The MOMA [The Museum of Modern Art] in New York, I saw Starry Night, and that changed me. It was nothing like what we see in books or on the Internet. The colours were richer, and moved me to tears," recalls Deshik Vansadia, director and solo performer of Vincent which will be staged this weekend.

Deshik Vansadia as Theo

Vansadia who is the artistic director of The Shakespeare Company of India, and the Shakespeare faculty at The Drama School, Mumbai, went about devouring Van Gogh paintings, and was heartbroken to learn about the artist's demise. "If you look at his work of over 2,000 paintings, you'd imagine he lived for 70 to 75 years. He discovered his love for painting at 27, and committed suicide at 37. His body of work was complete in 10 years," shares Vansadia.

The director feels Van Gogh was misunderstood and the masses saw him as an obscure genius. "He hailed from an upper-middle-class family of artists, and his brother was an art dealer. He could have followed suit. It's an incredible story of a troubled life. Gradually, my interest as an actor emerged, and I was looking at a character. I wanted to know how his life played out and what led him to paint."

For years, Van Gogh wrote letters to his brother, Theo, revealing the struggles and thoughts behind some of his most famous works. Vansadia will play Theo to tell Van Gogh's story. ‘I didn't want to portray Van Gogh for some reason, though it is a dream role for any actor. I felt it would become about me. So, I looked for a different approach. Theo wasn't rich but he supported his brother. When Van Gogh brought home a prostitute with two children, and another painter friend, Theo supported them as well. The love between the brothers is special," explains Vansadia.

In the play, Theo recollects these letters and describes the Van Gogh to his peers. The audience will be treated to a multimedia experience wherein the artist's works will be projected on stage, as Theo talks about them. "No matter where he lived or who he met, he continued his art. When he was poor and worked in a coal mine, he drew with coal. Those paintings are dismal, grim, and show people experiencing hardships. They were more like black and white sketches. Later, when he discovered his identity as a painter, the colours magically exploded on screen," reveals Vansadia before signing off.

On May 28 and 29; 7 pm
At Studio Tamasha, 602, Lokhandwala Complex, Andheri West.
Log on to in.bookmyshow.com
Cost Rs 200