look i made a hat
I went out to Arena Stage last night to see Red, a play about which I knew only the following things:
- Rothko! It was about Rothko!
-- All I know about Rothko is that he's the fuzzy colored rectangle guy
- Eddie Redmayne and his freckles were in the original production
- the buzz I remembered from the Donmar/NYC production was that it was good, if not
staggeringly so
Arena is kind of a bother for me to reach these days- DC is shaped like a diamond, and I live at the top, with Arena straight down at the bottom. It's either a long and roundabout metro trip, or an equally long and traffic-laden drive straight through the city. I was ESPECIALLY excited to discover that the area around the theatre has eliminated all possibility of free street parking, and then on TOP OF THAT, my glove compartment played a fun trick on me by FALLING OUT OF MY DASHBOARD when I tried to open it. All of these discoveries were, of course, made with only 5 minutes to curtain, so I had to park in the pricey garage under the theatre and bound upstairs to the box office and then into the theatre.
Because I am Awesome, I did make it into my seat with a little time to spare, though not enough to read the program notes. This made for some interesting discoveries after the show ended- biographical details clicked into place, and some resonances/foreshadowing to moments outside the scope of the text were suddenly realized as such.
I think it's an intelligent play, if not ultimately a great play. The balance between Rothko and his assistant is very interesting to watch as it progresses (and I love that it's only a two-man show), but I think the play is somewhat flawed from its nature. Much of the tension in the piece comes from Rothko's concern for his work and its place in the world (and likewise, his own place as an artist in a changing art world), and when Ken finally loses his patience with Rothko, he attacks him for his unrelenting, insufferable pretension. Problem is, the same could be said of the play at times. Ken critiques Rothko for trying so hard to be weighty, and this play OOZES with Seriousness and Serious Themes and Serious Art.
I think it's awfully telling that the moment all the critics talk about, and the moment that earned spontaneous applause last night, is the moment when Rothko and Ken finally PAINT. They throw themselves at a canvas, priming it in deep maroon and end up entirely paint splattered, collapsed on the floor or smoking the painterly equivalent of a post-coital cigarette. It's an amazing release of tension, of action in the middle of 100 minutes of talking, and it's WONDERFUL.
I liked so much about the play and the ideas it fences with and the insight into the mind of an artist that it grants. But I also keep thinking back to 'The Habit of Art,' another play about artists that just didn't push itself far enough- Red seems like it came close to being great, but just didn't quite make it, to my taste.
That being said, I am deeply, passionately in love with the lighting designer for this show. He seems to work mostly in NYC and Chicago, so I'd not seen his work before, but MY GOD, his lighting was SO GOOD for this show. I want to roll around in it forever, from the way he made the Rothko reproductions GLOW to the dim skylight high above stage right. YES, PLEASE.
- Rothko! It was about Rothko!
-- All I know about Rothko is that he's the fuzzy colored rectangle guy
- Eddie Redmayne and his freckles were in the original production
- the buzz I remembered from the Donmar/NYC production was that it was good, if not
staggeringly so
Arena is kind of a bother for me to reach these days- DC is shaped like a diamond, and I live at the top, with Arena straight down at the bottom. It's either a long and roundabout metro trip, or an equally long and traffic-laden drive straight through the city. I was ESPECIALLY excited to discover that the area around the theatre has eliminated all possibility of free street parking, and then on TOP OF THAT, my glove compartment played a fun trick on me by FALLING OUT OF MY DASHBOARD when I tried to open it. All of these discoveries were, of course, made with only 5 minutes to curtain, so I had to park in the pricey garage under the theatre and bound upstairs to the box office and then into the theatre.
Because I am Awesome, I did make it into my seat with a little time to spare, though not enough to read the program notes. This made for some interesting discoveries after the show ended- biographical details clicked into place, and some resonances/foreshadowing to moments outside the scope of the text were suddenly realized as such.
I think it's an intelligent play, if not ultimately a great play. The balance between Rothko and his assistant is very interesting to watch as it progresses (and I love that it's only a two-man show), but I think the play is somewhat flawed from its nature. Much of the tension in the piece comes from Rothko's concern for his work and its place in the world (and likewise, his own place as an artist in a changing art world), and when Ken finally loses his patience with Rothko, he attacks him for his unrelenting, insufferable pretension. Problem is, the same could be said of the play at times. Ken critiques Rothko for trying so hard to be weighty, and this play OOZES with Seriousness and Serious Themes and Serious Art.
I think it's awfully telling that the moment all the critics talk about, and the moment that earned spontaneous applause last night, is the moment when Rothko and Ken finally PAINT. They throw themselves at a canvas, priming it in deep maroon and end up entirely paint splattered, collapsed on the floor or smoking the painterly equivalent of a post-coital cigarette. It's an amazing release of tension, of action in the middle of 100 minutes of talking, and it's WONDERFUL.
I liked so much about the play and the ideas it fences with and the insight into the mind of an artist that it grants. But I also keep thinking back to 'The Habit of Art,' another play about artists that just didn't push itself far enough- Red seems like it came close to being great, but just didn't quite make it, to my taste.
That being said, I am deeply, passionately in love with the lighting designer for this show. He seems to work mostly in NYC and Chicago, so I'd not seen his work before, but MY GOD, his lighting was SO GOOD for this show. I want to roll around in it forever, from the way he made the Rothko reproductions GLOW to the dim skylight high above stage right. YES, PLEASE.