"Red....."

So even though I already have my tickets for a performance later in the month and for closing weekend, the lure of discount tickets was too hard for me to resist. I HAD to go see RED!

George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey is certainly getting in the spirit of things. Not only are the tickets bright red, but the whole interior lobby and a small lounge area are also painted bright red with bold black bands. It actually is quite nice.

Unfortunately the crowd tonight was quite small, perhaps only filling 1/3 of the house… but we can blame the Super Bowl for that. I ran into Jordan Barbour who played “The Specialist” in Tommy. He mentioned that Randy said they had been playing to full audiences during the week, so that was encouraging.

The stage for RED was impressive, it was a definite artist’s studio, with canvasses, and paint cans and brushes and splatters centered around a huge 6’ X 6’ canvas of a large red rectangle on a black background hanging on a movable wall. The whole thing almost seemed to “float” in the space as it surrounded by black, very much like one of Rothko’s paintings.

Bob Ari enters on a darkened stage and faces the audience as he contemplates a painting. We hear a door slam off stage and soon Randy as Ken appears from the left dressed in a conservative charcoal grey suit and tie, white shirt and black dress shoes. His hair is parted evenly on the side, and is very shiny and slick. The epitome of a naïve young man of the 1950’s.

Before he can even introduce himself, Rothko asks him to look at the painting (the audience) and tell him what he thinks. After a few more comments from Rothko Ken answers, “Red.” Rothko moves on. The scene continues to play this way as Ken follows Rothko, trying to say something, but always being interrupted after only being able to respond with a yes, or a no. Randy has great opportunity to react, and once again his facial expressions are a joy to watch.

Rothko hires Ken as his assistant, but tells him that although he appreciates the “Sunday best” outfit, they will be doing real work. So Ken removes his jacket and tie, and rolls up his sleeves. He is wearing suspenders and his pants are high-waisted, as was the fashion of the time.

A funny scene happens when Rothko asks Ken to just say the first thing that comes to his mind, and then asks him, “Who’s your favorite painter?” Ken immediately responds, “Jackson Pollock.” After realizing what he said, he pesters Rothko to ask him again. Which he does. This time Ken answers “Picasso,” with a devilish grin.

There is a lot of ironic humor as the two men banter back and forth about the state of art. A recurring theme of the show is Rothko’s concern with being replaced by the modern artists in the same way he and his peers put cubism out of fashion. Something he is proud of and something Ken will use against him later in the play.

The play consists of several scenes that are marked by a lowering of the lights. When Ken is seen next he carries a bag if Chinese takeout and is wearing a short grey jacket with an open button down blue and grey shirt, with a T-shirt underneath. They eat the food and Ken busies himself around the studio as Rothko continues to question him about the paintings and what he feels.

At this point we get a peek into Ken’s background, as he explains to Rothko that the color white frightens him. The stage lights are turned up as well as large flood lights in the ceiling, as Ken explains that he remembers the snow outside the window where his parents were killed.

Rothko gets the sudden inspiration to paint which excites Ken. He prepares a bucket with paint, adding powdered colors as instructed. Rothko dips his brush, stares at the painting (audience) contemplating and mumbles… what does it need. Ken absentmindedly replies, “Red.” This sends Rothko into a fit. Yelling and berating Ken for speaking. Once again, Randy’s body language is wonderful. I truly believed he was frightened by the outburst.

As Ken begins to clean up the mess from Rothko’s outburst, wiping the spilled paint, and mopping the floor, the men begin to name all the things that are red – sunrise, beets, tulips, wine, etc… and arterial blood. Rothko explains that he is afraid the black will overtake his red.

I found it very interesting how the scene changes were done… in that the house lights were lowered, but not much that you couldn’t see the stage, and were able to see Randy as he moved a lot of the props. But it worked because it was his job as Ken, to keep the studio stocked a clean.

Scene three has Ken wearing just a grey tee shirt and he carries a wrapped package with him, obviously on of his own paintings that he wants to show Rothko. He mixes a can of paint while he talks to someone on the phone. When Rothko enters he asks Ken to stretch on of the canvasses, and as he works on the floor, they talk about Nietzsche, who Rothko had told Ken to read at their first meeting.

Once again, he quizzes Ken relentlessly about what he thinks, not letting him off with the easy answer. He wants Ken to THINK, and challenges him constantly about how his paintings are like the characters in Birth of Tragedy. They also analyze the death of Jackson Pollock who Rothko says committed suicide by Oldsmobile. He feels Pollock and the other modern painters are sellouts, that the produce “overmantles,” not art.

Finally they are ready to paint, and the large 6’ X 6’ canvas Ken was working on is raised and readied. Ken stands anxiously with brush in hand, obviously excited about the prospect of painting. After some false starts while Rothko changes decides on the music, and Ken looks on expectantly the frenetic painting begins. It’s like a frantic painting ballet, while the two men move around pone another while covering the canvas with dark red paint, Ken falling back to the floor when it’s done. Captivating! This scene alone generated applause at its conclusion…

While beginning the process of cleaning up, Ken looks at the finished canvas and becomes lost staring into the colors. He says it’s the color of dried blood. Hès remembering his parents’ death and describes the morning when he and his sister discovered them murdered in their bedroom. It’s quite emotional and Randy does an amazing job conveying the memories of a scared seven year old. This time, when Rothko challenges Ken on what he thinks about black being the color of death, Ken begins to push back. He no longer just agrees, he his angry and annoyed and lets his feelings out, not caring about what the great Rothko might think. He quietly picks up his painting as he leaves.

The next scene has Randy in a grey sweatshirt and bopping around the studio gathering wood and tools as he listens to jazz music. He begins to measure and mark the wood with the pencil tucked behind his ear, when Rothko enters loud and irritated after a visit to a gallery where he has seen the works of his modern art competitors. Suddenly he stops his rant to ask Ken what he is listening to. Ken replies, “Chet Baker.”

He continues his raving saying the artists are trying to murder him, that they don’t understand the seriousness of art. Ken advancing the idea that art doesn’t HAVE to be serious, that the modern masters like Johns and Pollock and Warhol are just as much artists as Rothko, an idea that just irritates Rothko even more.

This moves Ken to fight back. He throws Rothko’s words back at him… that the modern artists are “killing” abstract expressionism the same way Rothko and his peers destroyed the cubists. Randy is superb in this scene, expressing a myriad of emotions as he finally lets it all out. Hès sarcastic, hès angry, hès taunting… and he moves from one emotion to the next with ease. He also moves about the stage and uses his body language to express his opinion. Rothko tries to bait Ken by mentioning his dead parents. But Ken goes right back at him demanding that Rothko acknowledge him as a person…

But this is exactly what Rothko wants and expects, so instead of firing him as Ken had assumed, Rothko admires him and offers a surprised Ken a drink. They continue their discussion about where these particular murals will hang.

The final scene begins with the entire back wall illuminated with red lights, even the parts of the stage on the sides that have been bated n black the entire show. Rothko enters from the rear of the stage and slumps in a chair with a bottle of whiskey at his feet. Loud music is playing when ken enters the studio this time wearing a dark grey plaid button down shirt. When he sees the red paint on Rothko’s hands, he panics, thinking he has killed himself. He turns down the music and then brings a basin and cloth as he sits on the floor and cleans Rothko’s hands while listening to him recount his visit to the restaurant where his murals will hang.

Randy really does a wonderful job showing a knowing compassion for Rothko while he tends to his hands. As Rothko laments the fact that his paintings will be housed in a place where they will essentially be just decorations, asking Ken if he thinks the paintings will ever forgive him. With a shrug of his shoulders Ken goes about the studio and replies, “They’re just paintings.”

This is a turning point for Rothko. He calls and informs the restaurant that they cannot have his paintings and is returning their money. This makes Ken happy and tells Rothko hès proud of him. Now Rothko begins to tidy the studio and fires Ken. Ken is dumfounded and demands to know why. Rothko makes excuse after excuse, even resorting to taunting Ken with the murder of his parents.

But Ken will not let him get away with that and continues to press Rothko for the real reason. Finally Rothko relents… telling Ken he needs to leave, to be among his contemporaries, to go and experience the world, to make his mark. This ultimately satisfies Ken and goes to leave, stopping one last time to look at the painting, Rothko questioning him one last time...

“What do you see?”

“RED”

Altogether a wonderful production… Randy’s grasp of the changing face of Ken is perfect. He shows him to be intelligent and passionate and yet still innocent in many respects. Bob Ari was also very good, although he did drop a line or two a few times. But they do work well together… they are both about the same height the confrontations between them take place when they are looking each other straight in the eye.

As I said the stage itself seemed to “float” in the blackness which was visually captivating. But it was a deep stage, and I felt that a lot of the action took place at the back areas. The sound quality was excellent, with some of the classical music that Rothko favors surrounding the audience. As a matter of fact, it is music we hear before we see any color at the start of the play. It runs about 90 minutes with no intermission, and with all the work Randy does moving stage props, I’m sure it’s physically demanding in addition to the emotional demands of some of Ken’s scenes.

The small audience tonight was I’m sure a direct result of the Super Bowl… but they were appreciative and gave the actors a nice long round of applause, with Randy getting just a bit more response. He was all smiles as they left the stage.

 

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