When Vincent Met John is an imagined meeting between Vincent van Gogh and John Lennon, Van Gogh as things stood in 1886 and Lennon in 1974; both down on their uppers.
They meet in an art gallery, Lennon passed out on a bench after a bender the previous night and Vincent bemoaning the harsh treatment he’s receiving from both his teachers and fellow students at ‘the Academy’.
Neither is sure who the other one is. Lennon can’t believe anyone could possibly not know who he is and assumes Van Gogh is after something or is from the police or the papers. Vincent is confused by the man, his hostility and the words he uses. The audience is likely to get the musical allusions, as well as the slang, and can fully understand Lennon’s disbelief. Once convinced Vincent is not from the authorities or the press, he decides he must be delusional, as he can’t possibly be a nineteenth-century painter.
The 90-minute play draws us in to the men’s similarities as they spar and spat both verbally and physically, and ultimately engage in a philosophical debate about the nature of art. The change from the adversarial to agreement and the sharing of views is subtly done, for which writer and actor Nick Wilkes (Lennon) should be praised.
Murray Andrews (Van Gogh) has the advantage of looking like what you might imagine the man none of us could ever have met or seen on screen looked like, though we’ve seen his self-portrait. Wilkes really doesn’t look like Lennon and his accent is patchy. His aggression reminded me more of a Gallagher brother. That said, this is an engaging play, often witty, especially in the badinage between the two characters, with misunderstandings abounding.
A shorter version of the work has been produced prior to coming to Edinburgh and I think that might have suited me better, with perhaps a slightly curtailed first part while the two men are coming to terms with themselves and each other. I found it a little laboured and enjoyed the change of focus onto the meaning of art at the end.
It has two showings in Dumfries after this run and it’s definitely worth going to see. I doubt you will have seen anything quite like it before.
Listings and ticket information can be found here
