Red at Archbold Theatre at Syracuse Stage

The 2010 Tony Award-winner for Best Play, Red is an intense and exciting bio-drama of the famed Abstract Expressionist painter Mark Rothko at the time that he was working on a commission for a series of murals for New York’s Four Seasons restaurant. On paper, the play has two characters, Rothko and young assistant. On stage, the paintings themselves become characters adding a stunning visual presence and making palpable the intense physical process of the art. As Rothko and his young protégé prepare paint and canvas and assess and reassess each work, they engage in a combative struggle over the methods and purpose of art that is sharp, funny and mentally invigorating.