We were treated to a DJ set from Xana, spinning and scratching her best vinyl from the 80s, over a huge split screen of shots from New York in that era. The tunes would not have been out of place in Studio 54; the footage fitting for going Across 110th Street, writes Michael Holland.
But then there was a sudden and unearthly silence and we were dropped into pitch blackness. A spotlight hit the ghostly white face that was unmistakably Andy Warhol. ‘Oh, wow,’ he said, without a smidgeon of wow. Anthony McCarten’s The Collaboration had begun.
Warhol had been brought by his agent, Bruno Bischofberger, to look at the work of new, young art-scene favourite Jean-Michel Basquiet. The agent wanted Warhol to agree to collaborate with Basquiat, a union that would/should make them all richer and more famous.
Warhol’s fame and relevance were fading fast at this time so for him to hook on to Basquiat’s rising star would be beneficial. Basquiat, conversely, who had not yet had work accepted by the great museums could do well to attach himself to an artist already acclaimed as one of the greats.
Bischofberger tells Warhol he needs to become relevant again; that he needs to surprise his public and not be so predictable with his screenprints of celebrities.
Basquiat, when having the same conversation with Bischofberger, is not sure about connecting his name with Warhol’s, but eventually they all agree.
The Collaboration deals with how they might have worked and interacted with each other. And, yes, all the conversations in the play are supposition but when written by the author of Two Popes, Darkest Hour, and The Theory of Everything, you know it will ring of the truth.
At their first meeting, Basquiat questions why he is working with someone ‘so white’. Warhol responds with, ‘I am human even if I don’t look it’.
Basquiat doesn’t believe Warhol should call himself a painter if he hasn’t picked up a brush for 20 years: ‘You’re just a self-playing piano that plays its own tunes over and over again without actually playing – You’re the King of Repetition’.
‘Paint is just one more letter than Pain.’
‘You just make prints of brands.’
‘Fame turns us all into a brand. Soon people will be saying “I want a Basquiat” and you as a person will become invisible.’
And so it goes on with Warhol getting all the best put-downs that would not be out of place in Ru Paul’s Drag Race, with Basquiat countering by telling Warhol he has no soul. But collaborate they do. These two people who are worlds apart come together to make art; one living in the past of a tormented childhood and a lifetime of feeling misunderstood, and the other living in a hectic present involving too much money too fast, too many drugs, and a close friend dying in police custody.
The Collaboration is a fantastic piece of work with tremendous performances from Paul Bettany, who looks like he has been fasting to play Warhol, and Jeremy Pope as Basquiat. Perhaps Bettany appears to be giving the performance of his career as we all know how Warhol looks and sounds, so we can compare. Whereas, not everyone is quite so acquainted with Jean-Michel Basquiat. Even so, this is truly a collaboration of two actors peaking in this production.
Kwame Kwei-Armah plays an important with some slick direction, as does the Young Vic with its walls covered in graffiti.
The Collaboration tells just a small part of what is a tragic tale of two giants of the art world, both dead within a short while of the events portrayed here.
The play ends with the sound of a Basquiat painting being auctioned for $110.5m.
Young Vic, The Cut, SE1 8LZ until April 2nd. Times: Mon-Sat 7.30pm; Wed & Sat matinees, 2.30pm. Admission: £10 – £50. Booking: 0207 922 2922 – www.youngvic.org