Dustin Lane Petrillo as Ken and Christopher Harris as Rothko in Red. Photo by Jon Gitchoff.
“Those who think the world of today is more gentle and graceful than the primeval and predatory passions from which these myths spring, are either not aware of reality or do not wish to see it in art.”
This quote perfectly captures the bombast, intensity, and depth of Mark Rothko. Born Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz, Rothko was one of the most influential American painters of the mid-20th century. The play Red focuses on a pivotal moment in his career, one which exemplifies Rothko’s temperamental and contradictory personality.
The life of Mark Rothko was shaped by radical ideas and powerful passions. He was born in Latvia (then part of the Russian Empire) at a time of political extremism and profound antisemitism. His family was spared the horrors of the pogroms but the threat of violence was never far from their minds. Rothko’s father feared that his sons would be forced to join the Russian army and the family relocated to America in 1913, at the dawn of World War I. As he matured, Rothko became politically active and increasingly conscious of his Jewish identity. He became an active member of socialist organizations and Jewish community centers (despite his ambivalence towards organized religion).
Rothko was engaged with the cultural and political clashes of his time, yet he often looked to the distant past for inspiration. In fact, Rothko believed that time was cyclical, that the art of his time merely gave different names and faces to the primal archetypes that have always dominated the human psyche. Rothko mused that “the archaic artist … found it necessary to create a group of intermediaries, monsters, hybrids, gods and demigods.” The monsters of Rothko’s wildest nightmares were brought to life in the form of fascism. Rothko, shaken by the Holocaust, observed that “without monsters and gods, art cannot enact a drama.” The painter responded to the horrors around him by honing his craft and experimenting with cutting-edge styles, including surrealism and abstract expressionism.
By 1958, Rothko had finally achieved critical and commercial success but also alienated his friends and followers in the art scenes. He was scornful of the rising generation of pop artists, “charlatans and young opportunists” who were “plotting to kill us all.” But in spite of his contempt for pop art and wealthy art collectors, Rothko had agreed to paint a series of murals for the swanky Four Seasons restaurant in New York City. Rothko had a last-minute crisis of consciousness, returned his $35,000 commission and kept the paintings. The “Seagram Murals” were kept in a vault until 1968, shortly before Rothko’s death, and they now hang in galleries across the world.
In the New Jewish Theater’s production of John Logan’s Red, Rothko (Christopher Harris) hires a young assistant, Ken (Dustin Lane Petrillo), for the Seagram Mural project. Ken, fresh out of art school, is somewhat in awe and eager to impress Rothko. The cantankerous painter swiftly gives a reality check to his starstruck assistant, unloading scathing criticisms of popular artists and the people who buy their work. Harris nails Rothko’s intellect and passion, inspiring and frightening at turns. In an early scene, Rothko berates Ken for suggesting a painting needed more “red”:
“By what right do you speak!? By what right do you express an opinion on my work? …Go ahead—here’s red! And red! And red! And red! I don’t even know what that means! What does ‘red’ mean to me? You mean scarlet? You mean crimson? You mean plum-mulberry-magenta-burgundy-salmon-carmine-carnelian-coral? Anything but ‘red!’ What is ‘RED?!’”
As their relationship deepens, Ken becomes disillusioned with Rothko and his idiosyncratic philosophies. Rothko can explain his choices with an endless stream of allusions and argue that he is the only living painter who understands the true meaning of art. Nonetheless, the irony of the situation seems to escape him. Ken fires back:
“Just admit your hypocrisy: the High Priest of Modern Art is painting a wall in the Temple of Consumption. You rail against commercialism in art, but pal, you’re taking the money.”
The set effectively captures the nervous energy of an artist’s studio. Paint cans and easels litter the stage; replicas of Rothko paintings hang in the wings and are switched out at the beginning of each scene by Ken. This clever detail adds a conceptual element to the play; the Seagram murals reflect the mood of the unfolding scene.
Sometimes Rothko and Ken engage in rambling discussions about art, philosophy, and culture while they perform the physical labor of artistry—mixing paint, stapling and priming canvases. In other scenes, the artists relate the personal tragedies that fuel their art. If audiences have trouble digesting the rapid-fire references to Jackson Pollack, Friedrich Nietzsche, the Apollonian and the Dionysian, that’s the point. Rothko was never comfortable with success and dreaded the thought that his paintings would become mere products for mass consumption.
The portrait of Rothko in Red is true to life—erratic, arrogant, and brilliant. Like Rothko’s paintings, the scenes are layered with complex, contradictory emotions. Rothko’s interactions with Ken swing from indifference, to disdain, towards an almost mentorly affection. The painter can be rude and ranting, but always engaging. It’s more a critique than a tribute, and Rothko himself might approve. He certainly wouldn’t want his portrait to be “nice.”
Red will run at the J’s Wool Studio Theatre (2 Millstone Campus Drive, St. Louis, MO 63146) from now until August 11. Performances are on Thursdays at 7:30pm, Saturdays at 4pm and 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm. Tickets cost $27-$58 and can be purchased at newjewishtheater.org.
The 8/3 matinee will be followed by a presentation from Rabbi James Stone Goodman on the links between Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe and the abstract expressionist movement of the early-to-mid 20th century. This will be followed by a conversation with award-winning scenic designer Margery Spack on 8/10. The New Jewish Theater will be back on September 12 with Trayf, a coming-of-age comedy set in the orthodox Jewish community of 1990s New York. | Rob Von Nordheim
To order tickets to Red, click here. For the latest from the New Jewish Theatre, visit jccstl.com.
