Well, It turns out that having an iphone hasn’t helped much in keeping this blog up to date after all. I blame the lack of a keyboard.

So what’s been happening lately? Well, the Americans have a new president, and a very nice chap he is too by all accounts. Shame about the swearing in fiasco, but it’s nice to have a bit of a laugh now and again. On this side of the pond things have been quite quiet. Christmas was good – busy but good. I’m currently knackered all the time but that’s more a medical thing than anything else (turns out my tonsils are choking me in the middle of the night and causing me to snore/waking me up quite a lot, so I have to have them out – more on that another time).

I’m currently researching the life of Vincent Van Gogh – someone I’ve been fascinated by for a long time.  I recently saw Jim Jarrett’s production of ‘Vincent’ (written by none other than Leonard Nimoy) and while I felt Jarrett’s performance was a bit mediocre for someone with all his experience and training (vocally he was frankly pretty rubbish) he did succeed in making me like the play a little better, and helped me to see more warmth in it than I thought was there.

For anyone who doesn’t know it, it’s not a text I would instantly recommend – Nimoy may be a great Vulcan, but he’s not a great writer – at least ‘Vincent’ is not a great piece of writing. On first reading it comes accross as pretty sterile, almost amateurish in places, and if it weren’t for the fact that Nimoy wrote it for himself and starred in it, I doubt it would ever have seen the light of day. But there’s not much out there about Vincent and frankly there ought to be.

For a long time now I’ve had the desire to write something myself on the subject, but I don’t want to launch half-assed into it and balls it up. That’s what Vulcans are for. The story is too rich and somehow too important to do a crappy job on, and I’ve kept putting the idea off until I’m a bit older and wiser, but it’s been nagging at me again recently and I think I should at least move things on a bit. Vincent was, after all, 27 when he started painting so I’ve got a couple of years on him now.

What really captivates me about his story is his faith. Vincent grew up in the radical wing of the dutch reformed church. His father was a minister, and there was a period in his early 20s when he was determined to follow in his father’s footsteps. Being an all-or-nothing kindof guy Vincent took Jesus’ teachings at face value. He went to live in an impoverished mining community in Belgium, gave away nearly all his possessions and went to live among the people. He poured himself out for that community in every way possible and they loved him for it. He preached and taught, but he also shared himself with them unreservedly, ate with them, worked alongside them, wept with them. This was too much for his denomination – they decided to shut him down for being too radical. They sent another guy in to replace him, and basically kicked  him out. It totally destroyed him. After that he was at a loss – didn’t know what to do with his life. It took a couple of years of bumming around feeling sorry for himself before he decided to try his hand at painting, the legacy of which we know all too well, but it was never his first love. Weird huh?

Anyway, that side of the story is rarely told, but Nimoy’s “Vincent” makes quite a bit of it. After seeing Jarrett’s production I’m convinced enough by the text to try a production of my own, and in a shocking bombshell move I think I’m going to cast myself in it. I’m still exploring the feasibility at the moment, so it may not happen, but if it does you can expect to see me playing one of the most famous and talented gingers the world has ever known at a theatre near… well… me probably because I hate touring.

Lots of work to do before then though, including memorising  50-odd pages of Vulcan prose… joy!