UNE expertise helps bring Vincent to life

August 13, 2007

A team including many students, staff members and graduates of the University of New England is bringing the nineteenth-century artist Vincent van Gogh to life in a drama about his early years as an art dealer in London.

Winner of the Olivier award in England, and with successful runs in New York, London and Sydney, Vincent in Brixton opens at the Packsaddle Studio of the New England Regional Art Museum, Armidale, on Thursday 23 August. The season runs from 23 August to 9 September with a total of 12 performances.

UNE students are involved as actors, lighting technicians and publicists. The director is Adjunct Senior Lecturer Barbara Albury, who is well known for her work on previous University-related productions such as Away for the 2003 UNE Outdoor Shakespeare Festival and Woyzeck for the 2005 German Festival. "Working with students is always refreshing and inspiring," Ms Albury said. "They have lots of ideas and are not afraid to voice them. I like that. You get lots of dynamism and inventive work that way."

Two members of UNE's Information Technology staff, Terry Cooke and Jim Harrop, are also involved in the production. Terry Cooke is the show’s official photographer and Jim Harrop is the producer. Mr Harrop, a Theatre Studies graduate, is enthusiastic about the challenge of bringing the story of van Gogh to the stage. "Van Gogh was only 20 in 1873 when he was living in London," he said. "He was enthusiastic, impressionable – and in love: first with his landlady’s daughter and, when she was not available, possibly her mother. This depressive widow was, however, passionate about helping talent and she may have inspired van Gogh to consider the possibility of becoming an artist." He sees the story as the emotional, sexual and creative awakening of a young man whose paintings became internationally famous only after his death.

Professional actress and UNE PhD graduate Julie Collins plays the complex role of Vincent’s landlady, whose ideas about morality went far beyond conventional Victorian beliefs. Her co-lead is education student Ben Sutton, who plays the young Vincent on his first adventure abroad.

The set design is by artist Paul Bakker, who is of Dutch origin and is a member of the same artist’s guild to which Van Gogh once belonged in Holland. "I have seen his signature on the records of the HKK club," he said. "I feel as if I sort of know the man. I have an affinity with him – his struggle, his pain."

There is a free preview for Vincent in Brixton on Wednesday 22 August at 8 pm. The opening night is Thursday 23 August and thereafter performances are on Friday and Saturday nights with Sunday matinees at 2 pm and a mid-week performance on Tuesday 28 August at 11.30 am. The matinee performance on Thursday 6 September is booked out. Ticket prices are $16 (standard), $13 (concession) and $8 (school students). Bookings are through Dymocks Bookstore in the Mall (phone 6771 4588).

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows UNE Theatre Studies student Alanna Proud in her role in Vincent in Brixton.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at August 13, 2007 10:15 AM