Publisher Description
"Smart and scintillating. Red deftly conjures what most plays about artists don't: The exhilaration of the act." The New Yorker
Under the watchful gaze of his young assistant and the threatening presence of a new generation of artists, Mark Rothko takes on his greatest challenge yet: to create a definitive work for an extraordinary setting.
A moving and compelling account of one of the greatest artists of the 20th century whose struggle to accept his growing riches and praise became his ultimate undoing.
Nominated for 7 Olivier Awards (2009) and winner of 6 Tony Awards (2010) including Best New Play, Red is published in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, featuring a new introduction by Michael Grandage.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Molina stars as abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko and Groff as Rothko's assistant and errand boy Ken, in this Tony Award winning play about the creation of Rothko's ill-fated Seagram Murals. The process of doomed creation provides context for a series of dialogues about art and life between the mercurial Rothko and his na ve assistant. Molina shines as Rothko, the artist, anarchist, and iconoclast. Ken, an entirely fictional character, acts as the voice of modernity and Groff effectively captures the essence of this evolving character. The changing relationship between the two characters and their eventual parting of ways foreshadows Rothko's suicide in 1970. And while Rothko's dark undercurrents are clear in Molina's performance, the narrator provides nuanced characterization, revealing the complexities that make Rothko a figure of significance even today.
