Synopsis A hopeful young man, a teacher in love, a pregnant woman, A fearful policeman, a boy on a mission, a pianist in the rain. A wounded man, a grandmother... And Vincent. Nine lives fractured by the events of one tragic day. David Watson’s thrilling new play tells the story of Vincent, a man estranged from his family and adrift in London. Reunited temporarily with his lost love, he finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. As Vincent's life changes forever, his destiny begins to affect a cast of characters across the country, from a remote house in County Down to the South Bank at sunset. A miniature epic about love, passion and violence in contemporary Britain. With a radical staging, and merging film and live action, Pieces of Vincent receives its world premiere in a bold new production directed by Claire Lizzimore.
There’s a wrong-footing randomness to the duologues that make up David Watson's play. A gentle piano teacher (Robin Soans) is besotted by his pupil (Joseph Rowe). Londoners Rachel and Vincent (Sian Clifford and Adam Best) are tangled in an on-off relationship. Across the Irish Sea a lonely old lady (Dearbhla Molloy) receives devastating news from Kevin McMonagle's sensitive policeman. Little links these characters, it seems, until one explosive moment shatters all their lives.
Twenty-something Watson’s star has been on the rise since Flight Path, and his talent for giving a voice to his own generation meant it was only a matter of time before the enterprising Arcola offered him this platform. His style is certainly confident: idiomatic, oblique and a touch too wordy.
A pity, then, that director Clare Lizzimore and designer Es Devlin have given Pieces of Vincent this multimedia mess of a production. Watson’s straightforward drama has been sacrificed on the altar of gimmickry. It unfolds on all four sides of the audience, enacted behind alienating gauze screens onto which haphazard video interludes are periodically projected. We squat on sciatica-inducing cushions and strain to follow Watson’s fragmented tale amid an onslaught of hi-tech distractions. Thank goodness there’s a playtext programme: just the thing for a quiet hour with an easy chair and a soft-beam lamp.
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