'Red' at Wyndham's Theatre

When it was announced that 'Red' was returning to the London stage I booked tickets simply on the basis that it was a play about Mark Rothko. I don't know anything about the play or much about Rothko but there was a small group of Rothko works at the Royal Academy Abstract Expressionism exhibition a couple of year ago. I go back to the '80s with Rothko and seeing one of his red-brown paintings at the Tate, sitting in front of it and trying to work out what made it art and did that matter? I loved 'Red' and I'm not sure why.

The play is 90 minutes long and is set in Rothko's messy studio. It's set in two years in the late 1950s when Rothko is working on a new commission for a restaurant and he hires an assistant to help him prime his canvases, run errands and do whatever is needed. The assistant, Ken, is, of course, a budding artist affiliated to the new pop art scene where Rothko is part of the old guard of Abstract Expressionists. Cue lots of discussions about the nature of art and about artists. The art arguments are, of course, staged for maximum effect but they mentioned artists and works that I've seen and that drew me in. At one point Rothko talks about visiting an obscure church in Rome to see a dark Carravagio and there's me in the audience thinking, 'I've been in that church and seen that painting'.

One of the memorable scenes in the play is where both Rothko and Ken prime a canvas together, splashing on the dirty-red paint in unison far too quickly but it got everyone's attention. It started a few people laughing for some reason.

Another scene was the one where Rothko talks about how how he and his fellow artists killed off Cubism with their Abstract Expressionism which is returned to later when it appears that the pop artists have killed off the old guard of Abstract Expressionism. True or not, it did seem as if it was just there to provide something else for the two players to argue about. There's a lot of arguing.

One of the final scene's is where Rothko sacks Ken and places his hand on Ken's chest saying, 'Make. Something. New', the benediction of a master to an apprentice who has just completed his master piece. Those should have been the final words of the play but they're not, of course. There are always more words.

This strange play drew me in and made me sit up and pay attention. Not just the writing and name-dropping but also the fine performances of Alfred Molina and Alfred Enoch who worked well together, almost like a master and apprentice. I really enjoyed this play, it struck a chord with me. Well done people!