Red
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Summary
The greatest surge of emotion in John Logan’s new play "Red" comes not from dialogue but from action as Alfred Molina, playing temperamental painter Mark Rothko and Eddie Redmayne, as his assistant, Ken, cover a massive canvas with paint, in the title color, with unbridled intensity. The production, transferred from London’s Donmar Warehouse, rarely sizzles like this one moment, but offers instead, a mostly humorless exploration of an artist and his art. It is, however, a work of passion, intellect, and ultimately, of vision.
In 1958, when Rothko gets a commission for the new Four Seasons Restaurant, he hires an assistant, Ken, a burgeoning artist himself, and arguments about the meaning of art ensue.
Molina is the perfect vessel for Rothko’s volatile nature who proclaims that he’s interested in stopping a viewer’s heart, not making pretty pictures. He argues with the ferocity of a warrior whose armor has already been pierced. It’s a fascinating and generous performance. The young Redmayne holds his own, matching each verbal abusive attack with renewed resolve.
Logan’s dramatic text meanders from lecture hall, to thesis, occasionally finding its way to dramatic tension. It’s filled with knowing references discussing the brush strokes of the masters from Van Gogh to Matisse, the validity of Rothko’s contemporaries like Pollock and de Kooning, and even an argument about whether pop artists like Warhol have banished Rothko’s brand of abstract expressionism. Throw in Nietzsche, and a list straight out of a thesaurus for crimson, scarlet, cherry… (the list goes on), in the form of a heated argument, and Logan’s dissertation on egotistical artists is complete.
Director Michael Grandage (“Hamlet” with Jude Law) understands the value of sparseness in a work leaning toward pretension. Christopher Oram’s art studio set replete with hanging red and black canvases, for the most part dimly lit “to protect them,” by designer Neil Austin, is the perfect backdrop to answer the opening question posed by Rothko, “What do you see?”
One has to wonder if a line from the script applies to the play itself, “Not everyone wants art that actually hurts,” but Molina and Redmayne are riveting even when the text is lacking making "Red" much more than simply an intellectual exercise.
By Lesley Alexander
Visit the Site
http://redonbroadway.com/
Cast
Alfred Molina, Eddie Redmayne
Open/Close Dates
Opening 3/11/2010
Closing 6/27/2010
Box Office
212-239-6200
Theatre Info
John Golden Theatre
252 West 45th Street
New York, NY 10036
Map
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