I’m not sure how to classify Steven Dietz’s Inventing Van Gogh. It is an epistolary drama constructed in a multi-layered way with aspects of spiritualism and magic realism in the mix. It is didactic (it’s tricky to create dialogue from letters, which is what Dietz has done) but, despite his bona fides and they are impressive, he doesn’t seem up to making many of these speeches sound like anything other than what they are: words meant to be read and not spoken. I’ve only seen one other Dietz play—Becky’s New Car—and I didn’t think much of it either.