[attach id=237192 size="medium"]Edward Mercieca (right) as Mark Rothko and Jean-Marc Cafà as his assistant in Red. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi[/attach]

Theatre
Red
St James Cavalier

Biographical plays are notoriously hard to pull off. However, when they are concerned with one aspect of the person’s life, and focus their exploratory energy on the development of the principal character’s sensibilities and motivation rather than his chronological plot, then the formula works.

John Logan’s Red is one such play and FM Theatre’s production, in collaboration with the American Embassy, last week proved to be as instructive as it was entertaining.

This intense two-hander saw a strong performance by Edward Mercieca. The actor took on the role of Russian-American artist Mark Rothko, whose bold canvasses, embodying abstract expressionism, and his use of colour as ‘merely and instrument’ to convey basic human emotion, are iconic.

Logan’s play deals with Rothko’s 1958 commission to paint the Seagram Murals in the Four Seasons Restaurant in Seagram’s new Park Avenue building in New York. Logan envisages a situation to explain why Rothko suddenly refused to complete the commission and backed out. He returned the advance money, stating that the restaurant, owing to its dining experience and kind of clientele, was not the best place to describe his series of 40 paintings in shades of red.

Devising the character of Rothko’s assistant Ken, a part ably played by Jean-Marc Cafà, Logan managed to create the ideal sparring companion for Rothko’s verbal diatribes. By bringing in the notion of young blood, growing into the confidence to oppose an established master, of whom he once stood in awe, Logan’s intention for Ken is to act as a mirror to expose Rothko’s complacent conceits as a master painter.

The two characters learn more about themselves and expose the audience to a certain philosophy of art and aesthetics while in turn criticising artistic temperament and sensibilities

This is where the colour red takes on a character of its own – the two actors literally wear it. It coats their clothes in the studio, they mix and make paint and vigorously paint canvas. Red stains and marks them and their lives, going beyond being a simple primary colour and becoming symbolic of their fears, passions and motivations and symptomatic of their increasingly dysfunctional but productive relationship as apprentice and mentor.

The dynamic between the two actors was strong and visibly energetic in their near-choreographed interactions. The slow build-up of the initial scenes – where personal information regarding Ken is revealed gradually, and the image of a self-possessed and rather self-indulgent Rothko emerges – contrasted strongly with the climaxes of the later scenes.

This was all down to Simone Spiteri’s great directorial instinct, which helped create moments of disquietude in the intermittent fervour and chaos of an artist’s studio.

Set and lighting design by Romualdo Moretti and Chris Gatt respectively completed the production well. When dealing with art and the effect that light has on it, especially the artificial light that Rothko claimed to favour, getting the lighting scheme right is crucial and Gatt did a particularly good job in achieving the right nuances which the elastic dynamics of the scenes required.

The two characters learn more about themselves and expose the audience to a certain philosophy of art and aesthetics while in turn criticising artistic temperament and sensibilities.

Mercieca’s steady character development showed a genuine engagement with Rothko’s persona and was admirably played, while Cafà’s Ken was studied and richly imagined, showing a depth which highlights Cafà’s growth as an actor. This is a great script and an excellent performance which should not be missed.

Red runs at St James Cavalier this weekend.