Anders Lustgarten’s visceral new play confronts the dangerous necessity of compassion in a world where it is in short supply.
Naples, 1606. Inside an unfinished church, a painting is emerging from the darkness. The Seven Acts of Mercy is Caravaggio’s masterpiece - and his first painting since he killed a man and fled Rome. As the artist works, he is fuelled by anger, self-loathing and his driving need to create a work that speaks of compassion in a violent world.
Bootle, the present day. A retired dock worker teaches his grandson, as around them a community is disintegrating under the pressure of years of economic and political degradation. With all he has left, a book of great works of art, he tries to open the boy’s eyes to the tragedy and beauty of the life he faces. And the boy reciprocates in the only way he knows.
Playing out across a gap of 400 years, Anders Lustgarten’s visceral new play confronts the dangerous necessity of compassion, in a world where it is in short supply. Directed by RSC Deputy Artistic Director Erica Whyman for the Swan Theatre in 2016.
THE PLOT
“For I was hungry, and ye gave me meat;
I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink;
I was a stranger, and ye took me in;
Naked and ye clothed me,
I was sick, and ye visited me;
I was in prison, and ye came unto me;”
- Matthew 25: 35-36
NAPLES. AUTUMN, 1606.
Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio has just fled from Rome, following a brutal duel in which he killed a man. He stays protected within the sanctified walls of a church, where he works on his latest commission. This painting is the first he has worked on since his exile began. The painting is what Caravaggio describes as an illustration of The Seven Acts of Mercy.
In Lavinia, Caravaggio discovers not only a flawless model for his commission, but an honest critic, a dear friend and unlikely artist whose talent is natural. Quickly, a deep bond develops between the two, and Caravaggio reaches out to his contacts in hope of finding a position for Lavinia as a paid artist in Italy.
Caravaggio battles his own demons, draws sweat and blood in his endeavour to create honest art that selflessly speaks for the dispossessed, and remains in mortal danger from the powerful people of Rome who wish to see him dead.
BOOTLE, MERSEYSIDE. MODERN-DAY.
A town destroyed by poverty; a community on the brink of despair. Political divisions are evident; the Labour party is the only party who claims to represent those in the underclasses of the country and yet is failing to do so. Fighting to keep possession of his home, terminally ill Leon Carragher has spent years teaching his teenage grandson Mickey about the value of art, particularly Caravaggio’s iconic The Seven Acts of Mercy, but is too jaded by his experiences and the world around him to put the principles into action himself.
Mickey, wise beyond his years, sets out to prove to his grandfather before his death that true compassion can be found in humanity and not just in art.
Camera in hand, Mickey’s mission leads him to the food bank, to making a kind offer to a pair of troubled siblings, to making a donation to a stubborn neighbour in need.
Mickey’s father and Leon’s son, Lee, returns to Bootle after years of absence. Apparently a self-made success, Lee has seemingly come to represent everything his family stands against; he even supports Liverpool where his family supports Everton. Can such a gaping rift formed by time and differing ideals be bridged to unify family and society through the power of Caravaggio’s masterpiece The Seven Acts of Mercy?
