Geva's 'Red' paints Rothko with reflection, obsession

• What: Red, the Tony Award-winning, two-person bio-drama about artist Mark Rothko.
• When: Runs through Nov. 15.
• Where: Geva Theatre Center, 75 Woodbury Blvd.
• Tickets: Starting at $25; available at the box office, gevatheatre.organd (585) 232-4382.

The Russian-born artist stands in reflection, smoking a cigarette, his eyes fixated on the murals he has been commissioned to paint for the fashionable new Four Seasons restaurant in New York’s Seagram Building.

In walks his new assistant, Ken, whom he badgers immediately with a tirade that demands immediate engagement: “Stand closer. No, not too close. Let it wrap its arms around you so nothing else exists. Let the picture do the work. What do you see?”

Ken’s answer gives the title to this highly reflective Tony Award-winning bio-drama by John Logan, continuing at Geva Theatre Center through Nov. 15.

Set in the late 1950s in the darkened Bowery studio of abstract impressionist Mark Rothko, the superbly taut two-character play is a dual between Rothko (Stephen Caffrey), who is facing the challenge of a changing art world, and his young protégé, Ken (John Ford-Dunker), who soaks up lessons in how to think about art even as he begins to see the canvases — and the famous painter before him — in a new light.

If a painting is a manifestation of the artist’s true identity, then Red is a luminescent homage to an artist struggling for recognition — the inner demons that plague his soul and are reflected in his work and the way he sees life.

Under the direction of Skip Greer, Red is well-paced even when it’s slow. There is a deliberate layer of psychological heaviness to even the quieter moments.

The ground rules are set almost immediately, when Rothko says to Ken, “I am not your rabbi, I am not your father, I am not your shrink, I am not your friend, I am not your teacher — I am your employer.”

All Rothko cares about is art — his art — and this is both his greatest strength and his biggest flaw. As Rothko incessantly preens and chatters, we are forced to listen and absorb. Through Caffrey, who infuses his character with mood swings that border on demonic despair, we come to understand Rothko as a self-taught artist, how he considers his paintings his companions, his fears about death and the color black, and how there is “tragedy in every brush stroke.” He is mesmerizing to watch.

Matching him stroke for stroke is Ford-Dunker, who captures hearts with his vulnerability as he recounts his tragic past. We revel when he finally finds the strength to turn the tables on the “bully” Rothko, challenging the artist’s theories and even his integrity.

Ninety minutes of intellectual arguments aside, the crowning moment takes place way before the final bow — when the two artists work together to prime an oversized canvas. Splashing on paint in vivid red to the sounds of an aria on the studio phonograph, their dancelike frenzy of motion and emotion brought a resounding cheer from the audience.

This is what we secretly came for, to watch a visionary at work and to see the exhilaration of initiating a piece of art, Rothko-style.

When they were done, I caught myself looking at it and asking: What do I see? It felt like I was seeing red, truly for the first time. And it looked like a masterpiece.

Marcia Morphy is a Rochester-area freelancer covering the arts.

Red

What: The Tony Award-winning, two-person bio-drama about artist Mark Rothko.

When: Runs through Nov. 15.

Where: Geva Theatre Center, 75 Woodbury Blvd.

Tickets: Starting at $25; available at the box office, gevatheatre.organd (585) 232-4382.