Melbourne Theatre Company Presents RED, 3/22-5/5

Six-time Tony and three-time Drama Desk Award-winning play Red by John Logan is an account of one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century, Mark Rothko, who struggles to accept that his growing ambition for praise and riches will ultimately become his undoing. After their performances together in film (Blind Company, Tom White), Colin Friels and director Alkinos Tsilimidos reunite for Red, which opens Monday 26 March 2012 at 8pm at The MTC Theatre, Sumner.

In a Manhattan studio in the late 1950s master abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko is madly painting a set of murals especially commissioned for the new Four Seasons restaurant, part of the prestigious New York Seagram Building. Under the watchful gaze of his young assistant Ken, and the threatening presence of a new generation of modern artists, Rothko faces one of the biggest conundrums for any artist who wants to make a living. Is this well-paying commission a wonderful chance to create a work of art for an extraordinary setting, or is he simply selling his creative soul at $35,000 a piece? Red is a searing portrait of an artist’s ambition and his ever-present vulnerability.

‘Reading Red I was struck by Rothko’s intensity, the sheer determination of his character. This is an incredible two-hander on a mythical pattern. There’s something of Jason and the Argonauts about it. There’s a monster in his cave and someone’s trying to steal the Golden Fleece,’ said Aidan Fennessy, a member of MTC’s Season 2012 Programming Team.

John Logan is an award-winning American playwright, film producer and screenwriter. He grew up in California and New Jersey, before moving to Chicago’s Northwestern University where he graduated in 1983. His plays include Never the Sinner, Hauptmann and The View. As a screenwriter Logan has written Any Given Sunday, the television movie RKO 281, Star Trek: Nemesis, The Time Machine, The Last Samurai, Rango, Coriolanus and Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon of Fleet Street, for which he received a Golden Globe Award. He also earned three Academy Award nominations for Gladiator, The Aviator and most recently for Hugo.

Melbourne-based  filmmaker, Alkinos Tsilimidos makes his stage directing debut with MTC. 

The MTC Theatre, Sumner

Season Dates 22 March to 5 May 2012

Opening Night Monday 26 March 2012 at 8pm

Tickets from $56, Under 30s just $33

Booking Details The MTC Theatre Box Office 03 8688 0800 or www.mtc.com.au

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