Stephen Fife's new play Break of Day follows the young Vincent Van Gogh on his journey to find himself as a man and as an artist. That he never does foreshadows the rest of a troubled life that nevertheless produced some of the world's greatest art.Struggling with the traditionalism of his father, a small-town pastor, and with the poverty and hardships that faced the coal miners in the mining town in Belgium where he attempted to preach, he finds himself losing faith in a God who seems to have forsaken the poor. Obsessive and driven, Vincent finds himself spending more time on sketches of the peasants he has come to know than on spreading the Word. Rebellious and defeated by the harsh strictures of an unbending religion, he returns home to fully embrace his art. A terminal social misfit, he falls in love with his cousin, another no-no in his father's tight little world. Defeated at every turn, his sole ally-and sometimes a reluctant one-is his brother Theo (Brian Gaskill), an art dealer who becomes Vincent's sole patron.
Backed by changing projections of now familiar paintings (set design by Scott Seidman), Fife's play-despite an ambivalent ending which leaves us unsatisfied-is itself an unfinished work of art, but a work of art nonetheless. Director Billy Hayes keeps a tight rein on what could have devolved into an essay on hysteria which, despite Freud's designation of it as a "woman's disease," is at the heart of Van Gogh's later paintings, in which the cornfields are wildly curdled by the inner turmoil of a man driven mad by his demons.
Hayes is blessed with a brilliant cast, all equally up to the task of taking Fife's play from the page to the stage. Brendan Ford, in the centerpiece role of Vincent, vacillates beautifully between clear-eyed clarity and encroaching psychosis-terrifying in his lunatic rage, and totally endearing in his childlike attachment. He has so many strings to his bow. Victor Raider Wexler, as the stern Pastor Theodorus, is memorable and ultimately moving in a tour-de-force performance. As his wife, Kathleen Gibson, facing the conflict of a strong husband and an equally strong son, is a lovely madonna with an understanding heart. Leslie Hunt, as the seductive Kay Vos, brings a nice normality to the role of a young widow not allowed to act on her emotions. In the thankless role of good brother Theo, Gaskill, though overshadowed by the exoticism of the other characters, creates his own careful balance. Meredith Morton and Ali Burns give tight, varicolored performances as the other women in Van Gogh's life.
The interesting and not altogether familiar subject matter makes for a fine new chapter in a book we thought we'd already read. |
