Red appealed to my inner art historian from the moment I
heard it was coming to the Gamm Theatre.
A lover of all things modern art, I couldn’t wait to see the production
of John Logan’s 2012 Tony Award-winning “Best Play” about artist Mark Rothko. I have always been attracted to the stories
of creative types and my bookshelf is lined with artist and musician
memoirs. That’s the reason I studied art
history and took so much to modernism.
It was art that required the backstory.
Enigmatic canvasses were lit up by their context and my acquired knowledge. It’s what makes it interesting. A picture becomes more than just a picture,
it’s a picture and the viewer’s perception.
Rothko’s modern abstraction is art that requires you to bring something
to the table, and I like to show up with a feast of context and concentration.
But I know not everyone is as fond of Rothko’s color field
canvasses. I think a large part of that
is a misunderstanding of the work or it’s reasoning. I always explain to the anti-abstractionists
that trips to the modern art museum require reading. Wall text is
invaluable. Viewers are active
participants in the work.
I was interested how the skeptics would receive Red, especially
those with the “my kid could paint that” mentality. I hoped that in revealing the man behind the
work, Rothko’s immersive layers upon layers of color would take on new meaning,
and I don’t think Logan, actors Fred Sullivan Jr. and Marc Dante Mancini, and
the team at the Gamm could have done a better job of that if they had the man
himself on stage.
Set in Rothko’s “grubby studio in the Bowery,” the play provides
an intimate glimpse into the renowned painter’s work and the often tumultuous
art world. Fred Sullivan Jr.’s Rothko embodied
the brilliance, self-aggrandizement and tragedy in the artist’s rise to fame
and struggle with it’s at-times blinding spotlight. Introduced with a demeanor
as jarring as the black seeping into the artist’s canvasses, it is Sullivan’s
mastery of the stage and compelling embodiment of the painter’s overwhelming
passion for his work that gradually endears the audience to the at first
unlikeable artist.
It was a performance that reminded me why I fell in love
with art in the first place. Sullivan captured the aura of the artist in a way
only an artist in his own right could. The Trinity Rep actor had his assistant, Mancini, who also
gave a stand out performance, and the entire audience hanging on every word. Rothko preaching on his own work, the work of
other art world greats, and life itself, teamed with the onstage dynamics
between Sullivan and Mancini opened a larger dialogue on art that was both
inspired and accessible to a broad audience.
It was a performance that left me thinking well into the next week, and
left me wanting more.
I knew that I was bound to enjoy Red. The show is an art-lovers dream. What I didn’t realize was just how appreciated
the performance would be by the larger public.
It was a performance so powerful, I imagine that every audience member
that leaves the Gamm will stop and take a longer look their next museum visit,
a newfound appreciation for the man behind the work. In that way, Red is play that will stay with
you long after you see it. You have
until December 16th to get to the Gamm.
I’d like to thank Providence Monthly for the tickets to
Red. Red is at the Gamm Theatre through
Sunday, December 16th.
Tickets are available online at www.gammtheatre.org
