VINCENT, 1978 -1981

Producer, Writer, Director: Leonard Nimoy
Based on the play "Van Gogh" by Phillip Stephens
Theo van Gogh (Theo also playing Vincent): Leonard Nimoy

It plays in summer 1880, after the death of Vincent
First performance May, 18th 1978 Sacramento, California;
more than 150 performances until 1981

Preparing for the show

Scene: On the left side a writing desk, letters, a rug and a chair for Theo. On the right side a table, an easel, paint, brushes, a wine bottle, a hat, a candle and a straw mat for Vincent. 

Theo van Gogh enters from the left. He is deep in mourning over his older brother's death, Vincent, and shares why he has invited all of Vincent's friends (the audience) now: He has not been able to speak neither at the funeral service nor at the burial but he has the great desire to share with Vincent's friends who the man was he loved so dearly. Suffering under all the misjudgments and misunderstandings Vincent daily had to live with Theo's mind is full of what he wants to share: His anger about a newspaper report denunciating Vincent's work. Who are they to judge about Vincent's art? His anger about Gauguin, who misused Vincent and spread the rumor that Vincent was mad. His anguish to watch helplessly how his brother's work of love and deep care was regarded as worthless. His desperation while watching his beloved brother buying paint and brushes while surviving on the not even most essential minimum of food. Theo assures Vincent's friends that it wasn’t madness, but an eagerness to share, preach, make aware and love, to give for mankind regardless of own needs. And he was epileptic. This too added to the impression of abnormality at that time. 

Again and again Theo rereads some of the more than 500 letters Vincent wrote to him. He shares parts of them with the audience, the friends of Vincent, he had invited. Vincent's passion to share his deep experience of human fate, beauty of nature, gratitude for creation and love to mankind and nature is revealed in the sentences Theo reads as if Vincent was talking to him now. He sometimes becomes Vincent sitting and drawing at the easel or shouting angrily. Or Complaining about circumstances and people's ignorance. Vincent's desperate cry for understanding, his cry for help to make people understand love and compassion is loudly shouted out as anger and complain about the ignorance of others – exactly the way Vincent has done it again and again. Theo is grateful for Vincent letting him take part in his passion. Vincent keeps on sending letters thanking him for his financial and moral support and understanding. It is coming across that it does not come easy for him to ask for more money. 

In his early childhood Vincent passed a tombstone every Sunday with his own name, date of birth and date of death engraved on it. His older brother was born on the same day a year before him, also named Vincent, and died shortly after his birth. Theo remembers how Vincent always lived with his passion to love and give – misunderstood even by his own parents. Their father, a Dutch Reformed Minister, could not understand certain ways Vincent decided to go. Officially Vincent did not sign with "van Gogh" because he felt that the name would be pronounced wrongly in foreign languages. The main reason was that he wanted to go his own way without the name of his father involved. The church too was not able at the time to understand Vincent's way of ministry. Loved by the people who's life Vincent shared working in the mines, giving away the last he had to experience and share their poverty and desperate, dull, gray – black everyday repeating existence, he drew in black and white. His deep feelings are revealed in his letters telling Theo which kinds of chalk or charcoal are too soft or too hard to be used for a situation to capture. But he was not accepted as minister though he passionately preached living amongst the people and sharing all their conditions. After an explosion he helped the wounded and took part in the ramifications the tragedy had on the people's lives – later the official blamed him for "loosing his respect" by being one of them. 

When Vincent falls in  love with Cousin Kee, Theo suspects that Vincent is drawn to her because of her loneliness after Kee's husband had died. At first Vincent is shattered because Kee does not return his love, but then he decides not to give up and tries to see her.
Not only has she left the house when he came, but he is refused to see her at all. Holding his hand over a light candle Vincent begs to be allowed to see her as long as he can hold the hand into the fire. And he tries to hold it into the flame...  for a long time ...

Finally accepting reality Vincent now concentrates hard on painting, now turning into color painting using carmine, cobalt and emerald green. Most times throughout the show Vincent's paintings are projected onto the wall behind the stage. These are oil paintings now he painted in this specific time. Vincent's affection for yellow might have been the result of his medical treatment, he saw the color yellow brighter than it usually was. In Paris Vincent tries to teach Theo how to paint. Theo recalls Vincent's reaction to his first painting: "Did you remember to clean your brush?" 

Vincent repeatedly invites Gauguin to visit him adoring him with all his heart. Gauguin first is not coming, but he too has hardly money to live on and later accepts the invitation. Gauguin, the painter who always wants attention and admiration without giving back to Vincent what Vincent so much longs for: Gauguin's acceptation of his work. After a verbal fight Vincent cuts off a part of his left ear and sends it to a courtesan. "Five franc for an ear." Gauguin leaves Vincent alone. 

Between the first and second act "Vincent" (Starry, starry night) by Don McLean was played and later substituted by "L'Arlesienne Suite". 

Act two begins with the ringing of bells and a number of pictures shown on the huge screen. Theo is sitting in the dark, coughing and obviously ill. He too is suffering under the circumstance that Vincent is committed into the hospital and later – on his own will – institutionalized to an asylum, St. Paul at St. Remy. A letter from Vincent tells him about the competition signed by various people to have him hospitalized – adding to Theo’s depression. Theo, deeply moved, cries, subtle, when he looks at the paintings shown on the screen. "Not the work of a madman," he manages to say. In the asylum Vincent paints and is accepted by the others with understanding and admiration. In his letters he appreciates that the others also have enough common sense "to leave him alone". 

In 1890 Vincent leaves the asylum to live in Auvere at Dr. Gachet's place, an art lover and supportive to Vincent. Theo and his family, his wife Johanna and their son Vincent Wilhem, visit Vincent there. Theo again is struck by the poverty Vincent lives in and still shaken. Shortly after they have left Vincent shoots himself besides his easel in the fields. Somehow Vincent manages to get back to his place and lives long enough for his brother to get to him. Vincent dies in Theo's arms. 

Theo dies six months later. 

Theo always had believed that Vincent will become for art as what Beethoven had become for music. The closeness of the brothers is being felt throughout the entire play. Most impressive and as the other experiences really to feel is the moment Vincent holds his palm over a candle – right into the flame for a long time. The audience is taken along a lifetime of an artist and his brother, touched so deeply by their passion, desperation and love, not because the feelings come across, but because the audience is taken along- deeply into the feelings and experiences of Theo and Vincent.

Vincent

1853	Zundert - March, 30 Vincent Willem II is born
1857	May, 1 Theo is born  Village school in Zundert
1864-66	Zevenbergen boarding school
1866-68	Tilburg studies
1868	return to Zundert
1869	The Hague
1873	Vincent works for Goupil & Cie in Brussels
1873	sent to London branch of Goupil & Cie He falls in love with Ursula, the landlady's daughter
1874	Ursula tells Vincent that she is secretly engaged  Vincent is sent to the London branch
1875	sent back to the head office of Goupil & Cie  Vincent withdraws himself after Ursula's refusal and begins with bible studies
1876	Ramsgate, as assistant school director
1876	Vincent walks to London and visits his sister Anna at Welwyn  working with Rev. Jones in the Methodist church at Isleworth  He visits his parents in Etten
1877	Vincent works in a bookshop at Dordrecht Amsterdam -  Vincent prepares for the entrance examinations to study Theology
1878	He quits studying Greek and Latin
1878	Etten, he spends a month with his parents while preparing for a mission school in Brussels / Laeken and begins to study there, but does not qualify. Return to Etten
1879	Borinage - a coal mining district as appointed mission preacher. Dismissal because Of too much involvement and "lack of respectability"  He moves to Cuesmes beginning to draw.
1880	Brussels visiting the Dutch painter van Rappart
1881	Etten, staying there because Theo is coming home too. He falls in love with his cousin, Kee Vos, who is a widow, but she rejects him. The discussion with his father about going to church on Christmas leads to a break. Vincent stays at The Hague taking painting lessons with Mauve.
1882	Vincent breaks with Mauve. Admission to hospital. When he leaves the hospital he has drawn a lot and begins now to paint. Living with Clasina Maria Hoornik (Sien)
1883	He breaks with Sien going to Drenthe, then to Nieuw Amsterdam. Two years Nuenen
1884	Margot Begeman falls in love with Vincent. She poisons herself because her family opposes. He suffers deeply from her death.  Vincent teaches painting at Eindhoven
1885	His fathers dies. He studies the theory of colors, visits the museum at Amsterdam and paints "The Potatoe Eaters" amongst others.
1885	Antwerpen Cethedra, Grand Place, woman with red ribbon Enters the academy
1886	Paris, Montmartre, Influence of impressionists. Theo and Vincent live together in Montmartre
1888	Vincent moves to Arles because of the colors there. Orchards, Le pont de l'anglois, Peach tree in blossom a.o. Moving into the "yellow house"  Gauguin visits him and tensions develop. Gauguin leaves after Vincent has cut off his left ear
1889	Vincent goes on painting after he is released from hospital. Because of his epilepsy he is readmitted into hospital. He stays in confinement. In May Vincent goes of his own will to the Saint Paul - de - Mausole Asylum at Saint-Remy-de-Provence. There he paints several parts of the garden. "Red Vines" are sold for 400 Franc.
1890	Vincent goes to Paris. Theo and his family visit Dr. Gachet's home where Vincent is painting Dr. Gachet's prortrait, his daughter and "Mademoiselle Gachet at the piano" Vincent returns to Auvers. He goes on painting and writing to Theo sending along sketches.  On July, 27 Vincent shoots himself. Heavily wounded he reaches Rovoux' and dies on July 29th. Theo dies six months later. Johanna, Theo's wife archived Vincent's works and collected any painting she could find in memory of them.