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Eyre's Vincent Follows Madonna into Wyndham's

Richard Eyre's critically acclaimed production of Nicholas Wright's Vincent in Brixton, which received its world premiere at the NT Cottesloe in May, will transfer to the West End's Wyndham's Theatre next month. The play will have a limited three-month season from 5 August (previews from 31 July) to 26 October 2002. It follows the completion of the Madonna-led Up for Grabs and precedes the return of the Right Size's Morecambe and Wise tribute The Play What I Wrote.

Based on the true facts of painter Vincent Van Gogh's early life in London in the 19th century, Vincent in Brixton concerns the transforming effect of love, sex and artistic adventure. Dutch actor Jochum ten Haaf plays the young Van Gogh, who works for the London branch of an international firm of art dealers while renting a room in the Brixton house of an English widow.

Also in the current Vincent cast are Olivier Award winner Clare Higgins (The Secret Rapture, Richard II, The Absence of War) and Whatsonstage.com Best Newcomer Award winner Emily Blunt as well as Paul Nicholls and Emma Handy. Nicholls and Blunt, who goes on to star in Chichester Festival's production of Romeo and Juliet are unlikely to reprise the roles though other cast members are expected to remain.

Wright and Eyre, who was the National's literary manager during Eyre's reign ten-year reign their as artistic director, collaborated on the book Changing Stages, an overview of 20th-century theatre that became the basis for Eyre's BBC television documentary series of the same name. Wright's other playwriting credits include Cressida, Mrs Klein and The Desert Air, as well as adaptations of Wedekind's Lulu, Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman and Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author.

David Williamson's Up for Grabs, featuring Madonna in her West End debut, finishes its sold-out, two-month run on 13 July 2002. The Play What I Wrote, which returns for from 30 October 2002 to 4 January 2003 ahead of a planned Broadway transfer. The multi award-winning comedy's first limited six-month season at the theatre ended this past May.

- by Terri Paddock

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