Stage 284's Black Box Lab Presents VINCENT

Vincent Van Gogh cut off his ear, committed suicide and inspired Don McLean to write a song about him ("Starry, Starry Night").

And now he's coming back to life.

Stage 284's Black Box Lab will produce Vincent, a full-length two-act one-man play about Van Gogh written by Leonard Nimoy, July 13-16, at the Community House , 284 Bay Rd., Hamilton, Massachusetts.

Van Gogh, a failure during his lifetime, was supported by his brother Theo, an art gallery owner. In Vincent, Theo gathers his friends a week after Vincent's funeral and tells them his side of the story, reading from Vincent's letters and often playing the role of Vincent himself.

Members of the audience will find that they've become Vincent's friends, not just members of a modern-day audience, but also characters in the story. Throughout the show, on a large screen behind the action, the audience sees the artwork that Vincent was creating during the events Theo is depicting.

"Vincent was a puzzle," director Kristina Brendel of Ipswich says. "He was wildly creative and deeply religious and he frequented the brothels. He was a genius and he was clueless and he was broke."

Kristina is directing the show; her husband Doug (himself hearing-impaired) plays the role of Theo - and of Theo portraying Vincent, along with myriad other characters from Van Gogh's colorful life. The Brendels have been working like this since they first met, in a community theater group in Arizona, 31 years ago. She was directing a show, he auditioned, she cast him, and they fell in love. They went on to work together on numerous productions with community and church theater groups, establish a theater magazine, and work as a "Nick & Nora" theater critic team.

Doug's portrayal is hilarious and heartbreaking. As Theo, he takes the audience on a wild ride through Vincent's early years as a Bible-thumping preacher, then as the husband of a prostitute and eventually as an inmate in an insane asylum.

Performances are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 4 p.m. Tickets are $15 and available online at www.stage284.org or at the door.

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