Vincent in Brixton

Nicholas Wright

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781854596659
• eBook ISBN: 9781780014043
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

A moving portrait of the young Vincent van Gogh - a hit in the West End and on Broadway. Winner of the 2003 Olivier Award for Best New Play.

Brixton, 1873. A brash young Dutchman rents a room in the house of an English widow. Three years later he returns to Europe on the first step of a journey which will end in breakdown, death and immortality.

Nicholas Wright's play Vincent in Brixton was first performed at the National Theatre, London, in the Cottesloe auditorium, in April 2002, directed by Richard Eyre.

The production transferred to Wyndhams Theatre in the West End in August 2002.

ACT THREE

Sunday morning. Summer. The kettle is on. ANNA comes in with a bucket and mop. She’s eighteen: small, busy. She is cleaning a room upstairs. She changes the water, rinses the mop.

SAM comes in. He’s been out, and has a hat and a Sunday paper.

SAM. Hello!

ANNA. Good morning. I am sorry, I did not hear the doorbell.

SAM. I let myself in. You must be Anna van . . . Gock?

ANNA (corrects him). Van Gogh! But yes, I am Vincent’s sister. I’m happy to meet you. You are . . . ?

SAM. Plowman’s the name, Sam Plowman.

ANNA. Won’t you please sit down and make yourself comfortable, Mr. Plowman. Excuse me that I cannot shake hands.

He sits.

Are you a friend of Vincent’s?

SAM. I am. Did you arrive this morning?

ANNA. We did. It was a beautiful trip from Harwich. I cannot believe how green the fields are, even in summer. It will be hot today, I think. My brother has promised to take me to Buckingham Palace. May I make you a cup of tea?

SAM. That’d do nicely, thanks. Two sugars.

ANNA. Tea. Now where does she keep the tea? I will find it.

She looks for the tea.

Madame Tussaud’s will be a treat for me. It is strange my brother has never been there. Tea. Tea.

SAM. It’s there on the left. With ‘Tea’ written on it.

ANNA. Thank you. One for each person and one for the pot.

She makes the tea.

Vincent will be coming down quite soon. He is moving into the room they’ve given him. It is called a ‘box-room’? But there are no boxes in it, only a bed and a kastje.

Gestures.

SAM. Chest of drawers.

ANNA. That is right. I am sorry to say the floor up there is none too clean.

SAM. I think you’ll find that no-one expected you till Wednesday.

ANNA. That was the plan. But then my brother received a telegram from Goupil and Company about some urgent business. It was a disappointment for our parents that we had to leave so early. Still, as they say, work comes first. Sugar.

SAM. There.

She finds it.

ANNA. It seems you know this kitchen’s ins and outs, Mr. Plowman. Are you a frequent visitor?

SAM. I live here. I’m the other lodger.

ANNA looks at him with renewed interest.

ANNA. Are you then romantically connected with Miss Loyer?

SAM. No, not a bit of it!

He laughs.

Never crossed my mind.

ANNA snorts in disbelief. Turns away, inspects the teacup, washes it irritably.

Did you have a nice crossing?

Pause.

I’m only asking ’cause I . . .

ANNA. It was uneventful.

SAM. No storms? ’Cause it was ever so windy here.

She clatters the cup and saucer.

Hurricanes? Shipwrecks? Trouble at customs?

ANNA. Here is your tea. I have my work.

VINCENT looks through the door but doesn’t come in. He has a portfolio and is tanned, shaggy and unshaven.

VINCENT. Hello, Sam.

SAM. Hello old pal. Pull up a chair.

VINCENT. No, I . . .

ANNA. Vincent, I will put the finishing touches to my room now. When it is done, I will clean up yours.

She goes, taking her mop and bucket, ignoring SAM.

SAM. You’ve got a very peculiar sister.

VINCENT. Why?

SAM. Well, first she sat me down as though she owned the place, and then she asked a downright personal question.

VINCENT. Ignore her. She’s over-excited.

SAM. Well, if you say so. I think washing other people’s floors is fairly peculiar. I’ll tell you something else. She makes a rotten cup of tea. Do you want some?

VINCENT. Please.

SAM. I’ll do it.

VINCENT sits. SAM pours him tea.

What was it like?

VINCENT. Terrible. You don’t know how lucky you are, Sam, not to have any family.

SAM. I’d never thought of it quite like that.

VINCENT. Oh yes. The thing about parents is, they just won’t leave you alone. I went for walks, I went to bed, I went wherever I could to get away from them, and then my mother started crying, and that was painful for me.

SAM gives him the tea.

Thank you.

SAM. I got in.

VINCENT. What?

SAM. I got into college. I got the scholarship.

VINCENT. Sam, that’s wonderful.

He goes to embrace SAM.

SAM. Here, mind the tea.

VINCENT. Oh yes.

Drinks his tea.

What did they say?

SAM. Not much. There was five of them sitting behind a big oak table. Tiled floor, Faux-Gothic ceiling and some very interesting murals.

Drinks his tea.

The table’s at the far end, so it’s a queasy walk. They sat me down, that was nice. Passed my portfolio down the table. One of them thought it lacked imagination. Big fat bastard. The others were fine.

VINCENT glances into the hall.

What?

VINCENT. Nothing. So they accepted you? That’s good.

SAM. It is in a way. I couldn’t help feeling that they saw me as . . . You know. A deserving case.

VINCENT. You are one.

SAM. Yes.

They drink their tea.

VINCENT. How much money will you get?

SAM. Twenty pounds.

VINCENT. A year?

SAM. Yes, obviously.

VINCENT. I thought it was more than that.

SAM. Well no, it’s not.

VINCENT. Still, you can probably pick up something extra in the holidays.

SAM. And after hours and at the weekends. I can do it. But I’d need to know that I was good enough.

VINCENT. Oh yes.

SAM. You see what I’m asking.

VINCENT. What does she think?

SAM. Ginny?

VINCENT. No, her mother.

SAM. She’s all smiles. At least that’s something I’ve achieved. I’m asking you.

VINCENT. Have faith in yourself. I have faith in you, Sam. I do.

SAM. Honest?

VINCENT. Yes.

SAM. Well, thanks.

He gets up.

Where’s Ginny?

VINCENT. She’s in the schoolroom. Don’t go just yet. I want to show you what I did in Holland.

He opens his portfolio. Of the first drawing to appear:

This was in The Hague. I’d gone to meet my brother, but he was stuck in a meeting so I had to wait. That’s the parliament building across the lake. I tried to give the passers-by a kind of Japanese look.

SAM. Spiky.

VINCENT. Yes, they’re too caricatured perhaps.

Next drawing.

This is a canal. It’s in the countryside. I did the sky all over with a soft pencil and then I sort of painted it with the india rubber.

SAM. What are the birds for?

VINCENT. They were there.

SAM. Not all the time. Not stuck in the sky.

VINCENT. I wanted to show that it was evening.

P...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction: The Secrets at the Loyers
• Dedication
• Original Production
• Characters
• Act One
• Act Two
• Act Three
• Act Four
• About the Author
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information