PROVENANCE HELPLINE © 2000 
FULL-LENGTH (75 minutes), 5 actors; 2(f), 3(m) First performed in London, 2000. Director Valerie Lucas

REVIEW and On-Line Programme.

What right does one person have to possess a masterpiece? Rembrandt and Hendrickje are subjects in a painting of disputed provenance, a work commissioned but not delivered. Who owns it then and now? Is the power of art weakened by being hidden away, used as an alternative currency? Accompany the painting from the time of Rembrandt's financial embarrassments to a current court-room squabble over the paperwork.On-Line Programme

2001. Performed in REMBRANDT'S WOMEN exhibition, ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, London as part of the Celebration of 400 Years of Rembrandt in 2006
2000.Subject of From the Page to the Stage lecture, University of Surrey, Roehampton
Picture from Etcetera Theatre rehearsals by Valerie Lucas.

PROVENANCE HELPLINE

Welcome to the second web-published play written live on the internet. This is a first draft of the script, preceding all live readings and performances. As such it should be taken as a taster rather than an exact replica of the script for performance. 

The play? I thought I should say a few words It started as an idea for a play about a disputed model/artist relationship. I toyed with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, moved on to Picasso and Dora Maar and finally ended up in the form you see now.

The play received some minor editing following a reading by actors in June 2000 and had an airing at the Edinburgh International Internet Festival, a virtual premiere. It was performed over 3 weeks in November/December 2000 on the London Fringe and was a featured work for drama undergraduates at University of Surrey, Roehampton. 

My original intention for this play was for performance in art spaces and I am therefore delighted that the first of these took place at Royal Academy of Arts, Piccadilly, October 2001, as part of their REMBRANDT'S WOMEN exhibition. More were provisionally proposed at London (Kenwood House) and Oxford (Ashmolean Museum).

Reading a play on the page can be rather dry. Some minimal stage directions are included here, including pre-performance guidance and ideas shown or suggested by the first performances.

Dramatis personae:

Rembrandt and Hendrickje remove drapes, turban, etc. and replace them in 'dressing-up' basket. They are setting up for a portrait session, which continues amid interruptions through this scene.

LIGHTING CUE:

Hendrickje:
de Medici.

Rembrandt:
Why?

Hendrickje:
He's rich. He loves art.

Rembrandt:
Many people love art.

Hendrickje:
He likes you.

Rembrandt:
He's never met me.

Hendrickje:
He's seen some of your pictures.

Rembrandt:
No.

Hendrickje:
You don't know what....

Rembrandt:
They're not for sale.

Hendrickje:
I haven't said....

Rembrandt:
Not for sale.

Hendrickje:
You wouldn't miss one.

Rembrandt:
Which one would you make me choose?

Hendrickje:
Any one you.......

Rembrandt:
Any one? You think it that easy?

Hendrickje:
I'm giving you the choice......

Rembrandt:
Tear out my heart. You might as well....

Hendrickje:
You never look at your pictures.

Rembrandt:
I don't need to look to know what they tell me.

Hendrickje:
Impatient gesture.

Rembrandt:
They took me years to collect.

Hendrickje:
Just stand there, propped up against the wall.

Rembrandt:
What's so bad about being propped up against a wall, Tulip?

Hendrickje:
No!

Rembrandt:
Come on - let's be artistic.

Hendrickje:
Stop it. Be serious for once.

Rembrandt:
Let's have some fun.

Hendrickje:
Not here.

Rembrandt:
We can dress up.

Hendrickje:
No! Someone might be watching.............

Rembrandt:
Let them....

Hendrickje:
Anyway, there's no room with all these pictures stacked up everywhere.

Rembrandt:
The house isn't big enough.

Hendrickje:
Big? As a house it's fine.

Rembrandt:
Didn't say it wasn't.
Starts to paint

Hendrickje:
But not as a major international art gallery.

Rembrandt:
Perhaps if we extended.......

Hendrickje:
Extend? We'll be lucky if we're left with a roof over our heads.

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