“RED” IS RED MEAT FOR THINKERS

“RED” IS RED MEAT FOR THINKERS

There’s a banquet of food for thought in Arizona Theatre Company’s production of “Red,” dramatizing the intellectual writhing of abstract painter Mark Rothko and his sometimes defiant assistant, Ken. 

Directed by Richard E.T. White as a co-production with the Seattle Repertory Theatre, “Red” takes us into the heart of darkness that was Rothko’s life as he struggled to justify painting something more commercial than the rest of his oeuvre in oils.

The setup has Rothko, a widely respected abstract expressionist in the late 1950s, being offered a lucrative commission to create several large works to fill the walls of the elegant Four Seasons restaurant in New York.

You can just see the wheels turning and inner conflicts building, can’t you?

It is a delicious and quite factual ethical dilemma which Rothko faced and playwright John Logan has dramatized. Everything takes place in the artist’s studio, realistically designed for the stage by Kent Dorsey.

Ken the assistant is pure fiction, but serves as a kind of straight man to keep the discussion roiling. As played by Connor Toms, he also represents the younger generation as fascinated by the pop art of such rising stars as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein as by more serious artists on a more properly intellectual path.

Passing the torch of creativity to the next generation wasn’t any easier for the painters than it was for the recording studio musicians trying to reconcile Eddie Fisher with Jerry Lee Lewis.

Denis Arndt creates a portrayal of the artist as a grumpy old man. His Rothko has no endearing qualities, save his dedication to pure art. Rothko also had a bitterly self-loathing side which receives ample display in the art studio debates between the authoritarian master and his younger, insecure pupil.

Ken (Connor Toms) is quite subservient at first, growing more confident as their conversations progress. But this is not a play where the younger generation triumphs over the older one.

Neither is this Rothko a raging bull of wounded pride. There is not a lot of wild-eyed confrontation in their discussions of art’s place in a barbarically commercial world.

So we in the audience don’t have to endure a lot of high-volume blather. Instead, we have to lean forward and pay attention. Whether or not their discussions are interesting will be in direct proportion to your own interest in art’s interior rationalizations.

For those who enjoy talking about art as much as they enjoy their time spent in the presence of art, “Red” with be an evening of fine dining at that banquet of food for thought.

The rewards will not be so much in those first bites, but in the deeper ruminations afterward.

“Red” continues through April 28 in performances at various times Tuesdays through Sundays at the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. Tickets are $39-$56. For details and reservations, 520-622-2823, www.arizonatheatre.org