November 27, 2012
The Jewish TribuneNovember 20, 2012
By Mike Cohen
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MONTREAL – As rehearsals proceeded for the much anticipated Montreal premiere of Red, a captivating look into the the life of iconic Abstract-Expressionist painter Mark Rothko, legendary Canadian director Martha Henry realized she had a big problem.
“Rothko was a chain smoker and there is no smoking allowed in our theatre,” Henry said in regard to the Segal Centre, where Red will be on stage from Nov. 25 to Dec. 16.
Henry tried to reach out to Academy-Award nominated screenwriter and playwright John Logan (Gladiator, The Aviator), the author of Red, which examines the nature of creation while painting an enthralling and vivid portrait of one of the great artists of the 20th century.
Randy Hughson, who takes on the role of the eccentric and enigmatic Rothko, came up with a solution.
“Talcum powder cigarettes,” Henry explained. “They have cotton serving as a filter It solved the problem.”
Hughson stars alongside Jesse Aaron Dwyre, who plays his new assistant Ken.
“Marcus Rothkowitz, his real name, was enigmatic, highly intelligent and educated,” Henry explained. “He spoke English, Russian, Hebrew and Yiddish and was an extremely opinionated Russian Jew who emigrated to Portland, Ore., with his family when he was 10. Although he is classified with the ‘abstract expressionists,’ Rothko had a vision that was singular in the extreme and no one, before or since, has (arguably) equalled the plunge into the subconscious that his paintings provoke.”
Red draws the audience into the studio of Rothko in 1958, when he was at the peak of his fame. Rothko has been commissioned to create a series of large-scale murals for Manhattan’s newly conceived Seagram Building, one of the biggest commissions in the history of modern art. Challenged by his assistant, Rothko questions his importance as an artist and whether this project is an affront to his artistic integrity. What follows is a gripping emotional and intellectual debate between prodigé and mentor, as the role of art in society changes and new generations of artists begin to eclipse the old.
A Companion of the Order of Canada and Governor General’s Award-winning actor, Stratford resident Henry is pleased to be back in Montreal where she once taught at the National Theatre School. She previously directed a show called Rose at the Segal Centre (then known as the Saidye Bronfman Centre) in 2005.
Rothko’s Seagram Murals recently made news headlines when one of the multimillion pound canvases, Black on Maroon, was defaced in an act of vandalism, two months after the museum opened a new Rothko Room as part of its permanent collection.
The murals were commissioned by the Canadian liquor company Seagram Co. Ltd., and then owned by Montreal businessman and philanthropist Samuel Bronfman. Bronfman, and his daughter, acclaimed architect Phyllis Lambert, were both instrumental to the creation of the Segal Centre building in 1967: the Bronfman family, its original investors and founding family, and Lambert, its architect.
“I am very much hoping Phyllis Lambert attends,” said Henry.
For more information about Red, the winner of six Tony Awards, go to segalcentre.org.