It’s often tempting to imagine what it might be like if famous celebrities from one era or another had been able to meet up, share ideas and collaborate. It’s along such a line that Nick Wilkes's play When Vincent Met John occurs, only with the added bonus of both men being not only unlikely friends, but equally headstrong belligerents.
It’s all set within the confines of an art gallery, where seemingly time and space have conspired to find Vincent Van Gogh (Murray Andrews) and John Lennon (Wilkes) in the same place. With Lennon fiercely hungover in the midst of an angry depression and Van Gogh in the middle of a manic episode of frantic creation, the stage is set for a comedy of silliness that descends into philosophical discussions on life, love, passion and above all art.
The dialogue flows beautifully under Owen Harper's direction, with misunderstandings, jokes and insults flying with free abandon and the two actors bouncing off each other's energy beautifully. The jabs and revelations come thick and fast, but the play never falls into the trap of having the men or the audience accept the supernatural reality of the situation. It could all be an LSD trip in Lennon’s head, or a derangement fuelled by Van Gogh’s poor health and self-induced famine. Instead, it simply allows each man to examine his own life through a new lens, despite Lennon's constant insistence that this is all either a trip, a prank or a hustle.
Yet the piece manages to be laugh-out-loud funny for much of the performance, despite it having some thought-provoking things to say about art, love and people’s inability to see what is most important in their lives. It also sticks to its guns right to the end, a genuinely entertaining hour’s traffic of the stage, an impressive feat considering that this is a cut-down Fringe version of the full 90-minute play. One can only imagine what other moments the longer piece can add.