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Thursday May 24, 2018
Red
This is a marvellous play and not what I was expecting.
To be clear, I was expecting a marvellous play - I just thought it might be a bit beyond my intellectual grasp to understand in what way it was marvellous - and actually that probably still is the case. What I did understand, was that it was splendidly entertaining and I was gripped throughout.
The set was gloriously like an artist's studio, and the actors (Alfred Molina, and Alfred Enoch) were terrific. In an amazing physical feat, they managed to paint a huge canvas on stage with a base coat (in red of course), most realistically at break neck speed - which is in reality how it has to be done to achieve the required evenness of coat. From the little I know of such things, this kind of canvas preparation is quite a challenge without the additional stress of doing it in front of an audience! But party tricks aside, the structure of the story, and Rothko's verbal sparring with his assistant were all fascinating. I loved it.
As usual, Michael Billington gives a wonderful and properly intellectual review which better explains why and how the production and actors made for such entertainment.
Posted by Christina at 2:58 PM. Category: Art and Culture
