At first his assistant is eager, and naive about art and the art world, despite going to art school and being a painter himself. He really has no deeper knowledge about art, than perhaps the casual viewer, but he does have a passion for it, and he looks for truth, meaning and soul in the art he encounters. When Rothko asks, “Who is your favorite artist?” he replies, fervently “Jackson Pollock!” Everyone in the audience gave a knowing laugh, (it appears that us art dorks are in very good company) as Rothko rolls his eyes, “Wait, ask me again!” and Rothko does, “Picasso!” was expressed with equal exuberance, tempered with a little hesitancy. This is the sort of exchange that I think really hit home for me, going to an art school, talking with professors and other students about art, artists and various movements. Had the eager assistant said Rembrandt, Rothko might have been impressed but to choose his contemporary, even a rival of sorts with such gusto and in a way such ignorance at that point did not put him in Rothko’s good graces.
Alfred Molina as Mark RothkoRothko talks about the way he and his fellow Abstract Expressionists “stomped” Cubism to death, his usage of colors, lighting and the way he wants his paintings to pulsate. The Title “Red” of course comes from Rothko’s intensive use of various hues and shades of red, there are discussions about the meaning of “Red” and the connotations associated with it. Blood, passion, heat, life… Rothko says that his greatest fear is that if “the ‘Red’ were to be overcome by the ‘Black.’” The “Black” signifying death, the unknown, the absence of red, “Black” is the opposite of “Red”
One of the most visceral moments is when his assistant (who I believe remains unnamed) helps him prime a canvas. In the center of the stage (set to look like Rothko’s studio) there is an easel of sorts, just a panel and attached is some sort of pulley system, so they attach the blank canvas to hooks on the back and pull it up so it stands upright a foot or so above the floor. On the floor, they first put a drop cloth down, clean side up, it almost looks like some sort of ritual, as they do all these steps in unison, the assistant gets the buckets of paints and brushes. One bucket on the left and one on the right, they each take a brush and the music swells. They each start on either side, Rothko on the upper left, the assistant on the lower bottom. The first brushstroke on the canvas is magical and somehow painful, it’s sloppy and dripping, but you become more and more involved and excited as more of the canvas becomes covered. They duck and dive around each other in a sort of strange un-choreographed dance, that presumably they have done many times before. The audience sees the white canvas becoming saturated by this intense “Red” right before their eyes. When finished, both actors are covered completely in splotches of red paint, their heads and hands; faces and arms are totally red, even visible from my nosebleed seat. As they take the canvas off the hooks and move it to lean against the wall, you can see the gory remains of their paint on the white wall/easel and on the floor and drop cloth. It brought to mind the hanging beef in a butcher store, hung on a hook, like the one painted by Rembrandt.
This play really was fantastic for any art enthusiast, it was great to hear Rothko rant about Pop Art, Warhol and the soup cans and Liechtenstein and those “comic books.” Do you really think that Warhol will be hung in museums a hundred years from now?” – “Well he’s hung in galleries now next to Rothko,” one of my favorite discussions is when they are talking about the blatant commercialism of Pop Art and Rothko’s own latent commercial leanings (with the murals,) and how “at least Warhol’s in on the joke!”
Bottom line, this play made me think, it made me view Rothko I a new way (as I came into it being rather indifferent to his work,) it made me think about color, light atmosphere and the life of a painting. It spoke about being an artist and being and aspiring artist, the rapid changing of tastes and the art world itself. It was brilliantly written, and surprisingly fast paced for a play where just two guys talk about things I really care about for an hour and a half. Alfred Molina was great as the intense and often cynical Rothko. Eddie Redmayne as the assistant was so very similar to people I’ve known in real life it was incredible. The only problem is that it kind of does fall into that stereotypical “volatile” artist, grappling with his own obsoleteness in the face of the new generation and the “eager, naïve” art student grows and learns about art in the process of watching the death of the old form. But hey, it was fun, and entertaining but it was also much more than that. It made me think. More so than other plays, that when you come out you think about the characters, the writer, costumes, the acting, the sets, etc. etc. This play made me think about these larger concepts of art and meaning, issues impacting my own life and with relevance to the world we live in and the art world some of us aspire to live in.
Here's a link to learn more about "Red"
http://www.telecharge.com/behindTheCurtain.aspx
