Too bad I missed it. Love Rothko, and recently watched a documentary about him. Thanks Rick for telling me.

From an article by James Hebert:

Oceanside Theatre’s sharply rendered production of the John Logan play “Red,” which dramatizes a pivotal moment in Rothko’s life and career, turns out to have a compelling pulse and flow of its own.

<...> At the center of the play is Rothko’s real-life corporate commission in 1958 to paint a series of huge murals for the luxurious Four Seasons restaurant in New York.

Rothko is deeply conflicted about the job; he’s proud of netting a record $35,000 for the commission, but exhibits an almost fatherly protective impulse over his work.

<...> Ideas fly freely and often thrillingly in the course of the play — about literature, philosophy and the infinite possibilities (and frustrations) of art.

One of the play’s most arresting moments comes when Rothko erupts over Ken’s impudent suggestion, as they examine a painting, to add more red — the color that dominate many of the artist’s works.

May’s evocation of Rothko’s rage is raw and almost scary — but then the scene morphs into a poetic back-and-forth on red’s many manifestations.