Vineyard Theatre’s “300 Paintings” Triggers Art and Creativity in a Captivatingly Manic Magnificence. – front mezz junkies, Theater News

The Off-Broadway Theatre Review: Vineyard Theatre’s 300 Paintings

By Ross

“So tell me, how the hell am I going to write that up?” I say to my buddy at the pseudo special ending of Vineyard Theatre‘s presentation of 300 Paintings, a one-man walkthrough of art and comedy played forth inside a designated workplace square that is anything but rigid. Created and performed engagingly by former standup comedian, Sam Kissajukian, the show is more like a highwired Ted talk delivered with an awkward wonderfulness by its central artistic force spiraling through a manic moment with an expert hyper-ease. “Find your voice,” he was told at one point in his comedic career, and boy, does he ever here on the Vineyard stage, even though he has to deal with the notion that he is standing there completely unprotected without his trusted hand-held mic.

Backed by some pretty solid scenic and lighting design by specialist Oona Curley (NYTW’s I Love You So Much I Could Die), Kissajukian stands before us as brave as can be. He tells us about his early career as a stand-up doing jokes for drunk strangers, lost in a framing that stopped making any sense to his soul. That is until the year 2021, when over several intense and unpredictable months, this very appealing Sydney comedian started to paint, not just one, but a series of paintings forced out of his head as if pushed by a hundred years of art history without hangups. With no actual art training, he dove in with a confidence that only comes from a collaborative manic state brought on by his bipolar disorder, which was undiagnosed (to him) at the time. He created 300 large-scale paintings, one after the other, in a frantic frenzy, documenting his mental state through that intensely complex period. And through this wildly entertaining introduction to the man, we get an introspective and potent examination of his manic thought process from there to here, in a way that is difficult to describe. Because words like ‘fascinating’ and ‘hypnotic’ don’t come close to the spellbinding wonder we are invited into.

He’s hilariously insightful and brilliantly authentic, as he guides us through his manic portals and projects. It’s an intoxicating and determined examination of the “ties between art, mental health, and creativity“, that is thoroughly captivating, even if it gave me heart palpitations from its speedy wonton wildness. As many readers know, I am a psychotherapist by day (theatre reviewer by night), and I must admit, halfway through the show I was almost hyperventilating from its manic energy. And even though it is brushed with genius, for this therapist, it was a lot to embrace and take in. I had just spent a hard week dealing with the trauma of many of my patients, trying to unpack all the anger and frustration the American election triggered within them, and I must admit, the week had exhausted me. But even so, and even while I was triggered myself as maybe only a therapist would be, I couldn’t take my eyes off of the brilliant shadow puppet reframing of a crazy idea cross-pollinating with a journey that began with misdirection and manic behavior, made strictly to weed out the weak and engage with all the creativity that lives within our collective hearts.

So, after a sold-out hit and run at the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival where he was a winner of eight Australian Fringe Festival Awards, including the Sydney Fringe Festival Award for Best Comedy and Directors Choice Award, 300 Paintings arrived and unpacked itself in NYC and the Vineyard Theatre, guaranteed to wildly entertain and hypnotize all with his dazzlingly authentic delivery and frank engagement. It’s an experience that you won’t easily forget, nor would you want to. But leave yourself some time after the 80-minute show (no intermission) because after, the engaging Kissajukian will gladly have a chat with you, outside his legal working box, as you take in his curated art exhibition that is on display in Vineyard Theatre’s lobby spaces. It’s a wondrous opportunity to dig in and explore the intersection of art, creativity, and a bipolar episode that lasted far longer than average,. Yet it created a visual and theatrical treat so wonderfully worthy of your time and attention.