Synopses & Reviews
Two masterful artists—Gauguin and van Gogh—come alive in a vibrant drama about friendship, art, and madness Two painters—Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh—are living together in the sleepy town of Arles in 1888. Soon, Gauguin, frustrated by van Goghs refusal to acknowledge his increasingly troubled mind, will depart for Paris. In two years, van Gogh will be dead by his own hand. In the meantime, the friends discuss their craft; they frequent a local café that van Gogh will soon immortalize; they become acquainted with a young prostitute, Lotte, who becomes Gauguins lover; they argue; they paint.
In Derek Walcotts new historical play, O Starry Starry Night, two world-renowned artists come to life as they wrestle both with grand themes—friendship, loyalty, fame—and with more mundane concerns, money primary among them. The scenes Walcott sketches summon several of van Goghs most famous paintings: Sunflowers, The Night Café, The Bedroom at Arles. His manipulation of language—van Goghs eloquent monologues giving way to more abstract speeches—evokes the painters descent into madness. Over the action hangs the threat of violence, of death, which lends the play a potent urgency; for at least one of the characters, time is quickly running out.
O Starry Starry Night is powerfully wrought, and demonstrates once again the sharpness of Walcotts eye: as a painter, as a poet, as a writer, and, above all, as an observer of human follies, foibles, failings, and aspirations.
Review
Praise for Derek Walcott “Characters come fully and movingly to life in Walcotts hands; black and white are treated with equal understanding and sympathy as they go their complicated ways . . . Wit and verbal play . . . enliven every page.” —Bernard Knox, The New York Review of Books
Review
Praise for O Starry Starry Night: “[The] language [of O Starry Starry Night] is what you would expect from the Nobel laureate—rich, seductive, scopious, with lines echoing Shakespeare at one moment then scatological the next; yet always perfectly, poetically devised for the page . . . Something of Becketts Waiting for Godot —with its pair of two human beings feeding off one another—flows through the veins of this. Beyond the glimmer of the stars, candles, street lamps and paintings onstage are questions of loneliness; of love. At moments you cant help but chuckle at Walcotts deadpan and often sly sense of humor . . . This is a play well-worth seeing, if only for Walcotts language. It is certainly a play worth reading . . . Here is a play about love, not necessarily in a carnal sense but about creative tension; about what we leave behind after we die; about who we love and why; who we are permitted to love; and who we permit ourselves to love. The question at the heart of the proceedings is whether love, in whatever form, is not itself a kind of ecstatic madness. Both characters are in an eternal dialogue: one is concerned with ideas, another pragmatism. Neither would have been the same without the other. The ultimate play about one of historys most famous bro-mances.” —Andre Bagoo, Trinidad and Tobago Newsday Praise for Derek Walcott “Characters come fully and movingly to life in Walcotts hands; black and white are treated with equal understanding and sympathy as they go their complicated ways . . . Wit and verbal play . . . enliven every page.” —Bernard Knox, The New York Review of Books
Synopsis
Two masterful artists--Gauguin and van Gogh--come alive in a vibrant drama about friendship, art, and madness
Two painters--Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh--are living together in the sleepy town of Arles in 1888. Soon, Gauguin, frustrated by van Gogh's refusal to acknowledge his increasingly troubled mind, will depart for Paris. In two years, van Gogh will be dead by his own hand. In the meantime, the friends discuss their craft; they frequent a local caf that van Gogh will soon immortalize; they become acquainted with a young prostitute, Lotte, who becomes Gauguin's lover; they argue; they paint.
In Derek Walcott's new historical play, O Starry Starry Night, two world-renowned artists come to life as they wrestle both with grand themes--friendship, loyalty, fame--and with more mundane concerns, money primary among them. The scenes Walcott sketches summon several of van Gogh's most famous paintings: Sunflowers, The Night Caf , The Bedroom at Arles. His manipulation of language--van Gogh's eloquent monologues giving way to more abstract speeches--evokes the painter's descent into madness. Over the action hangs the threat of violence, of death, which lends the play a potent urgency; for at least one of the characters, time is quickly running out.
O Starry Starry Night is powerfully wrought, and demonstrates once again the sharpness of Walcott's eye: as a painter, as a poet, as a writer, and, above all, as an observer of human follies, foibles, failings, and aspirations.
About the Author
Derek Walcott was born in St. Lucia in 1930. He is the author of fourteen collections of poetry, numerous plays, and a book of essays. He received the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature.