When Vincent Met John at The Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham this July
WHEN VINCENT MET JOHN
Vincent Van Gogh died in 1890,
John Lennon died in 1980,
both of gunshot wounds to the chest.
But imagine what might have happened had the two greatest artists of their time met…
This hypothetical meeting between John Lennon and Vincent van Gogh is the premise of a new play by actor and writer Nick Wilkes.
We all know that Vincent van Gogh was a nineteenth-century Dutch Post-Impressionist painter and amongst the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art.
We all know John Lennon was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who gained worldwide fame with The Beatles.
What we don’t all know is that five years before their respective deaths both men went through extreme and profound change, that has inspired playwright Nick Wilkes to bring these two cultural giants together.
“When you compare their lives, it’s amazing the similarities and connections that can be drawn,” Said Nick. “Their lives begin as polar opposites, but just like a bouncing ball getting ever closer to the floor, their lives become more and more drawn together by similar events, and when we find them at the start of the play, each around the age of thirty-three, both these men were in such a dark place and faced a dreadful crossroads”.
For Vincent van Gogh, after a string of failed and wandering career attempts and following the unexpected death of his protestant minister father, he moved to the port city of Antwerp seeking personal liberty and artistic oportunity.
He attended the free classes at the Royal Academy of Art but his appearance, style and working practices left him mocked and derided by students and teachers alike.
Impoverished and in ill-health, he tried to lose himself in the dark temptations amongst the quays and wharfs of the city.
For John, because of his recent overly-political songs and albulms, and with the relentless success of Paul McCartney, he was the least successful of the post-Beatles Beatles.
Estranged from his second wife Yoko One and engaged in an ill-advised relationship with his secretary May Pang, John had been living a miserable and violent nocturnal life of substance abuse in Los Angeles.
Jeered on by his riotous circle of famous hangers-on he was just one drink or drug mistake from becoming the next tragic rock and roll statistic.
This, is when Vincent met John.
“They were both very strong-willed and outspoken; passionate, unpredictable, temperamental and volatile artists passionate about their art. They say opposites attract, but when two such charged individuals are brought together then it’s fated that sparks will fly.”
Wilkes (who trained at the Bristol Old Vic and was the first Writer In Residence at Malvern Festival Theatre since George Bernard Shaw), has spent several years researching his subjects, a project that has taken him to all four corners of the British Isles and beyond.
“Highlights would include a private audience with one of Van Gogh’s works for at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and standing on the steps of a former school in Ramsgate where Vincent taught, looking directly at a view that he sketched. I’ve also performed at the Liverpool Empire and many other theatres where the Beatles played and stood at both Strawberry Fields in Liverpool and Strawberry Fields in Central Park New York, just opposite the Dakota Building where John was shot in December 1980.”
Both their lives ended in violent deaths, but was it inevitable or could it have ended differently? To find out what happens you’ll have to immerse yourself in our ninety-minute production and witness what happened When Vincent Met John.
A co-production between the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham, Worcester Theatres and Malvernbard, the play opens in Cheltenham in July prior to a national tour.
- When Vincent Met John at The Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham runs from 24-27 July 2024.
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23 July 2024
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