Opening the Curtain
A painter's pas de deux
At the heart of the play “Red”, two men stand before a massive canvas. It’s center stage in Mark Rothko’s cavernous studio. The blank expanse towers before the artist and his young assistant. As the young man pours thick red paint into two galvanized buckets, Rothko, played by Alfred Molina, drops the needle on TLU.
By Anthony Byrnes • • 3m ListenAt the heart of the play “Red”, two men stand before a massive canvas.
600 square feet of paintings for the most exclusive room in the new Four Seasons restaurant at the Seagram Building in New York.” As one critic put it, “the most prestigious public commission that had ever been awarded to an abstract expressionist painter.” The play circles around the question: why would a rebellious artist accept a commission to, in effect, decorate the backdrop of privileged consumption?
On the page, the script could be, like the canvas, a bit flat and predictible. What keeps the play urgent and engaging - like the painting of that ‘red square’ are the two stunning performances by Alfred Molina as Rothko and Jonathan Groff as his assistant. Directed with a graceful precision by Michael Grandage, Mr. Molina delivers a truly tour-de-force performance. He captures the cantankerous passion and sardonic wit of the artist and navigates the shifts of tone with taut precison.
This is a performance, and a play, not to be missed.
“Red” plays at the Mark Taper Forum in downtown LA through September 9th. This is Anthony Byrnes
Opening the Curtain on LA Theater for KCRW.
Runtime: 90 Minutes without intermission.
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