Looking at the art of American expressionist painter Mark Rothko, some will perceive the whole range of human emotional experiences, from anxiety to tragedy, ecstasy to feelings of doom. Others will only see big blocks of colour on backgrounds of a different colour. Art is very subjective.
I can’t honestly say that I “get” much abstract expressionist art, Rothko’s included. What I can understand, though, is the passion that artists bring to their work, and the very conflicted relationship they have with commercial success.
Those are some of the many issues explored in the Sudbury Theatre Centre’s production of Red by John Logan. The original Broadway show won six Tony awards in 2010, including Best Play.
Rothko became a successful and famous artist in his lifetime. The downside of that was his fear that most of the viewers and buyers of his work didn’t really understand it, they only cared that it was popular and fashionable.
And he wasn’t the kind of artist who could churn out canvasses just for the money. That very attitude provides one of the main conflicts of the play. In 1959, Rothko was commissioned to paint a series of murals for the Four Seasons restaurant in the new Seagrams Building on Park Avenue in New York city.
His struggle with the project is portrayed in Red as he interacts with a fictional apprentice named Ken who eventually challenges the master’s theories about art, and especially whether true art can be created for such a commercial purpose.
As portrayed in Red, Mark Rothko is arrogant, self-righteous, condescending, easily angered, and oh-so-very self-absorbed. He has no interest in Ken’s life or opinions.
Everything is about him, and his pronouncements are gospel. What makes these faults forgivable is his keen intellect and his fierce passion for art.
Playwright John Logan has done a terrific job capturing both qualities with a brilliant script, and actor Lorne Kennedy gives an excellent performance in bringing Rothko’s fervour to life with believable sincerity when it could so easily have come across as pretentious.
Alex Furber as Ken authentically shows us the timid reverence of the student in the presence of a master, and the later disillusionment as he learns enough to have strong opinions of his own.
The set is wonderful in the way it creatively evokes an artist’s studio. And although the whole play is a dialogue with little action, STC Artistic Director Caleb Marshall has skilfully ensured that it never feels static.
Most of Red’s 90 minutes is intellectual debate—something rarely seen in the mainstream entertainment of our TV and movie screens. But, especially for those of us in the arts, it’s a refreshing and stimulating change of pace.
Red runs at the Sudbury Theatre Centre through April 4th. The box office number is 705-674-8381 x21 or go online to sudburytheatre.ca.
Scott Overton is the author of the thriller Dead Air. He writes theatre reviews for Northern Life.
