The play was staged in an art gallery. It was based on the life of a famous artist; and the set was a recreation of his studio in New York. It was a small audience, and the seating was close to the set that aprons were handed out to the audience to avoid paint splashing on their clothes.
The Dubai-based director and actors of this homegrown production of a Tony award-winning play did justice to the script, keeping the audience engrossed and engaged until the end. All of this contributed to making the experience of watching “Red” at The Jam Jar unique and enjoyable.
The play, which premiered last week at the Junction, and then moved to The Jam Jar, will have two more performances tonight and tomorrow, and is a must see for those who like art and theatre.
Written by Academy Award-nominated writer John Logan, “Red” is based on the life of American artist Mark Rothko. It is set in the period from 1958 to 1960 when Rothko was working on a series of murals for the exclusive Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram’s Building in New York, designed by famous architects Mies Van der Rohe and Philip Johnson.
The play explores the reasons why the artist declined this lucrative and prestigious commission after working on it for almost two years.
The play opened to rave reviews in London in December 2009 with Alfred Molina and Eddie Redmayne playing Rothko and his young assistant respectively. A year later it opened on Broadway, where it won six Tony Awards, including Best Play.
The Dubai production is directed by Alex Broun, a playwright, screen writer, actor and theatre and festival director from Australia, who has worked for performing arts organisations around the world. The central characters of Rothko and his young assistant Ken are played by Canadian Egyptian Osman Aboubakr and Deepak Venugopal, a Hollywood trained Indian actor, born and raised in Dubai.
Aboubakr, who has years of experience as a producer, director and actor, prepared for the role of Rothko by researching the artist’s personal and professional life and taking art lessons from artist Lindsey Gildea. “I researched the books he read and the music he listened to while painting; and I spent many hours in the Jam Jar studio learning to mix the special pigments and binders that Rothko used, to paint like Rothko and to create the paintings that are part of the set,” he says. Venugopal’s challenge was different. “Since Ken is a fictional character, I worked on bringing him alive through body language,” he says.
The story unfolds in Rothko’s studio in The Bowery, through the conversations and interactions between the self-absorbed, reclusive, and intimidating artist, and his nervous assistant, who is an aspiring artist with an interesting back story of his own. It tells us about Rothko’s background, his inspirations, his philosophy of art, his fears about his work not being understood, his uneasiness with his own success, and his inner struggle as he grapples with the idea of displaying his dark, emotional paintings in an elitist restaurant. Rothko speaks about his fear of the black swallowing the red in his paintings, and towards the end of the play, there is a scene that portends his suicide a few years later.
As the play progresses, the assistant grows in confidence and begins to express his own opinions, forcing his mentor to question his own decisions, and to realise that it was time to let the young artist go out into the world and chart his own path.
The exchange between the two men, and their changing relationship, provides an insight into every artist’s struggle to create work that is meaningful, to find the right audience, and to maintain the balance between creative freedom and commercial success. It also delves into the insecurities of artists as they look at the success of their contemporaries, fight to remain relevant and deal with the arrival of a new generation of artists with new ideas.
“I wanted an intimate setting so that the audience can be like a fly on the wall and feel the power of the explosive and dramatic moments in the life of a passionate and intense artist,” Broun says.
Hetal Pawani, founder of The Jam Jar, is excited to collaborate on this project. “We are happy to host this play not only because it is a Tony award-winning play, and about an artist, but also because it gave us the opportunity to get involved in various aspects of the production, from researching and sourcing the materials and techniques used by Rothko for the creation of an authentic set, to training the actors to paint like Rothko,” she says.
Jyoti Kalsi is an arts-enthusiast based in Dubai.
“Red” will be staged at The Jam Jar, Al Serkal Avenue, Al Quoz on November 10, 11 and 12 at 8pm. To register, contact info@thejamjardubai.com or call 04-3417303.
