About the Play:

Red has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Male Monologues and Male/Male Scenes.

Red is a full-length drama by John Logan. Based on an incident in the life of expressionist painter Mark Rothko as he paints a set of murals for the the ritzy Four Seasons restaurant. Red is a moving and compelling account of one of the greatest artists of the 20th century whose struggle to accept his growing riches and praise became his ultimate undoing.

Red follows the apprenticeship of Ken, a young painter, under the volatile and famous abstract expressionist Mark Rothko. Rothko has just landed the biggest commission in the history of modern art, a series of murals for New York's famed Four Seasons Restaurant in the new Seagram building on Fifth Avenue. In the two fascinating years that follow, Rothko works feverishly with his young assistant, Ken, in his studio on the Bowery. Ken mixes paint, runs errands, and cleans brushes. He ends up being the audience for Rothko's beliefs about art and the world. But after years of Rothko's indifference to him as a person, Ken finds the courage to stand up to his mentor, challenging his theories of colour, his contempt for Pop art, and his controversial acceptance of the Four Seasons commission. Now Rothko faces the agonizing possibility that his crowning achievement could also become his undoing. Raw and provocative, Red is a searing portrait of an artist's ambition and vulnerability as he tries to create a definitive work for an extraordinary setting.

Red premiered in 2009 to great acclaim at the Donmar Warehouse, a 251-seat black box theatre in London's West End, before transferring to a smash hit Broadway run at the Golden Theatre in 2010, where John Logan was awarded the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League awards for his play. Since then the play had regional premieres at professional theatres across North America. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and has been mounted by colleges and community theatres.

Cast: 2 male

What people say:

"Intense and exciting…a study in artist appreciation, a portrait of an angry and brilliant mind that asks you to feel the shape and texture of thoughts… Red captures the dynamic relationship between an artist and his creations." — The New York Times

"Smart, eloquent entertainment … Logan's dialogue is a sleight of hand; behind its wallop is a lot of learning … Logan sometimes appropriates Rothko's epigrams ('Silence is so accurate'), but his own idiom is well wrought and delightful. He doesn't just tell; he also shows, at one point having Rothko collaborate with Ken in mixing paint and priming canvases. As classical music blasts from the record player, they slather the paint over the canvas, a balletic, two-minute explosion of activity that deftly conjures what most plays about artists don't: the exhilaration of the act." — The New Yorker

"John Logan sends American abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko into battle with his demons in this electrifying play of ideas, and the artist's howls are pure music…Rothko is one old lion that will keep roaring until he draws his last breath." — Variety

"Logan's success lies in reminding us that painting is a job of work … what emerges is something rare in modern drama: a totally convincing portrait of the artist as a working visionary." — The Guardian (UK)

About the Playwright:

John Logan is a three time Academy Award-nominated American screenwriter, playwright, and film producer. His work for the stage includes Never the Sinner, Hauptmann, a new adaptation of Ibsen's The Master Builder, and Red, the Tony-winning play about painter Mark Rothko. His work as a screenwriter includes Skyfall, Sweeney Todd, The Aviator, Hugo, Gladiator, The Last Samurai, Rango, Coriolanus, and Any Given Sunday.