Vincent double built for the part

With his unkempt red hair, intense blue eyes and haunted features, young Dutch unknown Jochum ten Haaf could have been designed to play Vincent van Gogh.

The Dutchman is now doing just that in Vincent in Brixton, a new play about the artist's formative experiences in London as a 19-year-old which opens at the National Theatre on Wednesday.

Director Richard Eyre discovered the actor when he went to Amsterdam to look for a

Dutchman for the role. "It was not only the hair and eyes but there was something very full of life about him," says Wright. "He auditioned and, fortunately, we liked him enormously."

And what does ten Haaf think of the artist he resembles so closely?

"I suspect people were uncomfortable with him," he says.