Bedlam is back and in full swing, setting the stage for Red, a two-man drama following Mark Rothko’s (Rufus Goodman) commission to paint a mural for The Four Seasons’ latest and greatest restaurant. Rothko’s art assistant, Ken (Dylan Kaeuper), is a bright-eyed optimist, but similarly sees the world only through the lense of artwork. Portraying the genius and his student, the play spans two years of slow disillusionment from the commission and Rothko’s confrontation with the zeitgeist and his place in it.
Despite its subject, Red never leans too far into gilded genius rhetoric and instead makes the effort of showing Rothko’s vanity and fragility within his art. The script lends itself to the humour of this rhetoric, instead of trying to divert from it, and by doing this humour is sometimes lost in the production. For example, when Rothko declares: “You should be so blessed I talk to you about art,” it should have been ridiculous, but it felt like the actors weren’t quite in on the joke.
Lighting and set design brought skilled assuredness and structure, effectively segmenting the two hour performance with a host of flickering and dimmed lights. We learn that the natural light is discussed in Rothko’s studio, giving all the more power and conversation to its lighting design. Rothko is obsessive, and quizzes Ken on his art under a different lighting state — asking what it evokes. In the reams of dialogue the central theme of identity-at-odds is sometimes buried.
Ken pushes Rothko to confront his role as an arbiter of a dying art movement as well as a self-serious artist convinced that he can outwit consumerism by fulfilling his mural commission but making it grotesque to all who dine by it. This dynamic is played slowly yet clearly.
The set itself is continually utilised for making paints, stapling canvases, and simulating the studio, smoothly and effectively adding a rugged reality to the 1950s setting. The play is pushed along by this staging: by moving art, and even a new canvas with fresh paint — letting it drip to the sound of their debate, the play begins to feel like an externalisation of art and spoken therapy, together.
Both Goodman and Kaeuper are at their best in the final third, where their confrontation comes to a head and tensions finally boil over. There is no humour here, only close-cutting, built up accusations that push the characters to action. Their dynamism is built and decisive, showing the Bedlam regulars rightly as veterans of EUTC. The play is a marathon of dialogue and emotional tension, but they keep its immediacy and risk in the audience’s sights, pushing the characters to extremes of self-reckoning. Bedlam will be lucky to see what comes next from these two.
Image by Beau Wolton on behalf of ‘Red’ (@beauwoltonisonline), provided for press use.
