The woman who helped helped bring the art of painter Vincent van Gogh to the world is featured in the next Breaking Cover play-reading series in Red Deer.
On Sunday at noon, local actors with Red Deer Players will bring to life the script for After Mourning, an original play by Mike Czuba.
The dramatic reading in the Snell Auditorium of the Red Deer Public Library, directed by Ashley Mercia, will take listeners back to 1924.
That’s when a man from London’s National Gallery visits Johanna Bonger in Holland and makes a substantial offer for a painting of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.
The Dutch post-Impressionist painter wasn’t yet the father of modern art. In fact he’d barely sold a painting before dying in obscurity at the age of 37 in 1890.
Yet, for 35-years up to her death in 1925, Bonger was unwavering in her efforts to bring van Gogh’s work to prominence — and Czuba’s play will tell her story.
There is no admission fee to the play reading, but donations will be gratefully accepted.