(Top): Felix Pring and Sarah Hall as Rembrandt and Hendrickje, and Julia Hart as Cornelia

Graduates and staff from Regent’s University London have wowed visitors to The National Gallery’s ongoing Rembrandt: The Late Works exhibition by taking leading roles in a play [over 31 Oct and 7-8 November 2014] which questions the right of any single person’s possession of a masterpiece.

Jim Grover’s Play to the Gallery follows Rembrandt’s career and the journey of one of his paintings from his studio in 1656 to Nazi Germany, ending in a modern-day courtroom ownership battle.

Reviewer Eleni Young commented “this is a production that dares to ask the questions around ownership. Can art be really owned? Is art really art if no one can see it hidden behind vaults?”

Directed at the National Gallery by Valerie Kaneko-Lucas, Theatre & Performance Studies Programme Director at Regent’s University London, Play to the Gallery also featured two of Regent’s recent performance graduates in a unique partnership between the University, The National Gallery and the producers, Naked Theatre.

Valerie explained: “Working on a play about Rembrandt – one of the world’s greatest artists – at this amazing venue showing his work from the early 1650s until his death in 1669 has been tremendously inspiring.

“It’s fantastic that our two graduates, Julia Hart and Charlotte Carne, completed their BA Acting & Global Theatre studies in June 2014, and have already achieved a professional engagement at a major venue.

“They have benefitted hugely from performing alongside actors with established careers in theatre and film.”

For more on Regent’s University London: www.regents.ac.uk

Rembrandt: The Late Works runs at the National Gallery until 18 January 2015: www.nationalgallery.org.uk/rembrandt