Red at South Coast Repertory

“What do you see?” Mark Rothko, abstract expressionist, living legend and uncompromising bad boy asks Ken, his seemingly naïve new assistant. It’s 1958, and Rothko is at the height of his glory. In a converted gym deep in New York City’s Bowery, he has begun work on the biggest commission in the history of modern art—and everything is at stake. Rothko’s movement has stomped out cubism, but pop art looms threateningly on the horizon. As canvases are stretched, paint mixed and feverishly applied, Ken’s answers turn into questions, becoming more probing—and provoking—with each brush stroke in this heart-stopping Tony Award winner about the nature of art and artists.