Perhaps it’s just a sign of the times — and of the pressures facing nonprofit theaters in the wake of a crippling pandemic that left them dark for more than a year. But it’s hard to imagine that the venerable Vineyard Theatre would have bothered to mount Sam Kissajukian’s slight one-man confessional 300 Paintings in the halcyon days before 2020, when the outfit was producing ambitious, challenging (and Broadway-bound) work like Tina Satter’s Is This a Room, Lucas Hnath’s Dana H., and Paula Vogel’s Indecent. The venue’s season now includes multiple collaborations with other cash-strapped nonprofits as well as one-off solo shows like Haley McGee’s Age Is a Feeling (a production postponed this fall due to the creator/star’s illness).

Kissajukian seems as surprised as the audience that he’s telling his story in a traditional proscenium theater space — though he’s performed the work in Sydney and the Edinburgh Fringe. “I’m not from the theater, I’m from Australia,” he jokes at the top of the show. And his laid-back Aussie demeanor wears well as he shares his story about abandoning his career as a stand-up comic in his native land at age 36, moving into an isolated former cake factory, and embarking on a quest for a new vocation that ultimately centers on making art, painting in particular.

The twist is that his self-imposed isolation, coming before his official bipolar diagnosis, triggers an epic six-month manic episode in which he cranks out a whopping 300 large-scale paintings — not counting the dioramas, the hundreds of bleach-dyed t-shirts, the 6,000 hand-painted pennies, and the obsessively detailed 3-D video “museum” he also produces while in discussions with a bizarrely credulous hedge-fund manager/investor. His fit of productivity, and his mental state, are further fueled by his decision to disrupt his sleep cycle — which leads to an inevitable depressive crash during which he finally seeks treatment.

Kissajukian’s narration comes with a slide show of his work, a kind of autodidactic tour of 20th-century modern art styles often with cuneiform-like figures that have a hauntingly obsessive quality that recalls both his idol, Vincent Van Gogh, as well as aboriginal art. More of his work is on display in the lobby spaces of the Vineyard, often accompanied by placards that lampoon gallery-speak. 300 Paintings is a showcase for Kissajukian’s creative output, but it stands shakily outside of most genres: less funny than standup, less informative than a TED talk, less engaging than a conventional play.

300 PAINTINGS
Vineyard Theatre, Off Broadway
Running time: 90 minutes (no intermission)
Tickets on sale through Dec. 15