Red

Full-blooded and visceral, the Tony Award-winning Red takes you into the mind of abstract expressionist Mark Rothko, for whom paintings are “pulsating” life forces and art is intended to stop the heart.

Red chronicles the tormented painter’s two-year struggle to complete a lucrative set of murals for Manhattan’s exclusive Four Seasons restaurant, and his fraught relationship with a seemingly naïve young assistant, who must choose between appeasing his mentor—and changing the course of art history. Set amid the swiftly changing cultural tide of the early 1960s, Red is a startling snapshot of a brilliant artist at the height of his fame, a play hailed as “intense and exciting” by the The New York Times.

“Red” is produced in association with Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater
Molly Smith, Artistic Director | Edgar Dobie, Managing Director