Actor Jack Ellis and writer John Retallac take the severance of Van Gogh’s ear and transform it from a well-known fact into a deeply moving meditation on mental health, masculinity, and human nature. This one-man show will transport you into the tortured mind of a self-critical genius. You will resurface seeing the world as he sees it — rich in colour, and more beautiful than it is possible to express. It will familiarise you with 24 beautiful paintings, and the heartbreaking yet inspirational story of an artist and a man.
The play was written over the course of five years, and contains such clear, vivifying details of Van Gogh’s real life that the extensiveness of the writer’s research is immediately apparent. It is Ellis, though, who moulds these details into a real person. He embodies Van Gogh through the whistle of his speech, the way he signs his letters, and his uncouth mannerisms. Ellis becomes an artist who is both tortured and haunted by his many failures, but also infectiously enthusiastic about art and life itself. Ellis also portrays Ganguin, a conformist and a foil to Van Gogh’s self-criticism. The relationship between these two important historical figures is depicted with subtlety, all whilst inducing wincing sympathy.
Despite the premise (and the flyers!), I could not have prepared myself for the climactic moment of drunken self-harm that we were all expecting. The scene when Van Gogh cuts off his own ear involves no hand props and no fake blood, but it is acted with such extraordinary passion that I was forced to shut my eyes and clutch my stomach.
One reason that Ellis is able to embody the characters so effectively is because his deep fascination with them is real. According to Ellis himself, the narrator’s experience of becoming introduced to the art world as a mischievous school student in detention is true to his own life. The deep connection between the two creatives — Van Gogh and Ellis — is overwhelming, and, for me, was the lifeblood at the core of the play. I urge anyone interested in either developing an understanding of important cultural figures, or simply being engrossed with a tragically true story of a troubled man, to give this play a watch.
Van Gogh & Me ran until 30 August.
Image by Geraint Lewis, provided to The Student for press use.
