A Portrait by the Postman Roulin

A Portrait by the Postman Roulin


“Would you like to share my bottle of wine and talk?  

       Sometimes strangers can have the most intimate conversations.”


The scene is simple:  two chairs and a table, a baguette in a country basket, a bottle of peasant wine, two glasses, a corncob pipe.  The host announces:  “We are in a café in Auvers, France. The year is 1890.  Joseph Roulin, the Postman, comes forward and sits in one of the chairs.  For several seconds he poses, silent, still, the embodiment of van Gogh’s painting of Roulin in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.  Then, the portrait comes to life!


For the next hour, author/educator/Screen Actors Guild actor Ted Zalewski as the Postman captures the spirit of van Gogh the man and the essence of van Gogh the artist.  As Vincent’s loyal  friend, Roul in relates van Gogh’s amazing personal  and artistic journey from his native Holland to the south of France. The Postman, written by Ted Zalewski  and based on extensive research into van Gogh’s life and letters, is filled with humor, passion, and joie de vivre.



“… such a good soul and so wise and so full of feeling and so trustful.”  

--Vincent van Gogh writes of his friend, Joseph Roulin, to his  brother, Theo, 1889




Applause for the Postman

TED ZALEWSKI tedzale@cs.com 617-864-2030 P.O. Box 380168  Cambridge, MA  02238

University of Illinois - Loyola University - Harvard University Graduate School  of Education


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