theater review: exhausted paint @ big couch

Drew Stroud as Vincent Van Gogh in 'Exhausted Paint' (photo by Kalen Jesse)

​Exhausted Paint @ Big Couch
Review by Paul Oswell

Van Gogh spent 11 of his last 18 months in an asylum, wrestling with madness as he created some of his most famous works. Can one man open himself up to beauty so unconditionally that it destroys his own sanity? It’s a question that we’re quickly forced to reckon with in Exhausted Paint (playing at Big Couch through Oct 18th). 

Drew Stroud plays Vincent Van Gogh, a lone figure on stage, surrounded by abstract sketches on canvas walls and seemingly random artifacts that hang from the ceiling. Vincent is aware he’s in a play (“I’m just a contrivance”), seems clued into his future legacy (“I hate that Don McLean song”) and is ready to push through the fourth wall with a jabbing paintbrush as he muses on one of art’s most enduring life stories. 

Behind Vincent is a wheel that we the audience have populated with single-word prompt cards, relating to the props. There is an introduction and an ending, but the 14 chapters of this play are given a random order, dictated by the wheel, every night. There’s a potato, a crow, a Chekhovian gun.

Stroud’s Van Gogh character pinballs between crises and poetic outbursts. Even within each section, there are sharp shifts in energy, from wide-eyed mania to rambling but beautiful flights of fancy, and poignant reflections on the cruelty of being recognized as a talent, just too late to save a life. Van Gogh was a more prolific writer than he was even a painter, and his letters prove to be engagingly effective source material.  

This is not a sanitized retelling of Van Gogh’s life, and some of his more problematic peccadillos are writ large as we tick off the chapters. Vincent tells us of the time that he proposed to his widowed first cousin, creating all kinds of familial tension. He romantically pursues sex workers and lives a somewhat chaotic life; unstable and poor, careening around a bohemian - for which, read ‘poor’ - artistic demi-monde. He abuses substances to dull the intensity that human emotion and chromatic stimulus evoke: “I drank paint thinner to remove the telescope in my mind.”

It's testament to Stroud’s acting that - even with the addition of the randomising elements of the script - he is able to hold the audience’s attention while shifting dramatic gears so smoothly. He gets up close to the audience, staring one person right in the eyes, interacting with a few of us, covering himself in graphite and paint as the image of his life develops. Carly Stroud’s direction keeps things moving apace, while the creative stage team can take credit for a pleasingly abstract set that still keeps us grounded, and has more than one surprise in store. 

Van Gogh’s story is a familiar cultural touchstone (even having its own Dr Who? episode), but Justin Maxwell’s script feels fresh and enthralling. Even art history majors might discover a few details about Vincent that they weren’t previously aware of, and there are plenty of jokes peppered into things to counter-balance the waves of tragedy. 

Theater company Fat Squirrel has taken a chance with an unusual one-man show such as this, but the gamble pays off. Among the paint chips and tree roots and graphite dust, there’s a story of a man who is gorging on the world’s beauty, even while it overwhelms him. Van Gogh is such a bright star in the artistic firmament, and one that shines through in this compelling production. 

Exhausted Paint is brought to you by Fat Squirrel, and plays at Big Couch through 18th October. Click here for more information and ticketing

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