SINGAPORE, June 28 — The Esplanade will play host to a mini-exhibition of Mark Rothko paintings in a couple of weeks. In a manner of speaking.
Seven huge reproductions of paintings by the late, acclaimed Abstract Expressionist artist will be displayed on stage for The Studios’ next production, Red, the Tony Award-winning play about Rothko.
Written by John Logan (The Aviator, Star Trek: Nemesis, Sweeney Todd), it was first staged in 2009 with acclaimed actor Alfred Molina playing the artist. It takes place in the late ’50s, at the time when Rothko was in the midst of creating his so-called Seagram Murals, a series of huge paintings commissioned for the Four Seasons restaurant inside the Seagram Building in New York. His assistant, Ken, provides the counterpoint as he questions the artist’s decision to take on the project.
Rothko, who committed suicide in 1970, was one of the most famous names associated with the American Abstract Expressionist movement, alongside the likes of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. His expansive abstract “colour field” paintings fetch millions of dollars in auction houses, while at the same time being associated with a sense of spirituality.
The Singapore production is directed by Samantha Scott-Blackhall and stars Daniel Jenkins as Rothko and Gavin Yap as the assistant. And for everyone involved, short of flying to the Tate Modern or MOMA to see Rothko paintings in person, having his works — or at least the reproductions commissioned from China — in the room was a necessary component and inspiration during rehearsals.
“In the earlier part of the rehearsals, we could only imagine what the effect of his works were. We spoke to a couple of people who had seen his works and the insight was the same — they’re large, they’re epic, they draw you in with the massive blocks of colours and how the colours take you to a different place,” said Scott-Blackhall.
Once they saw the reproductions, including two works measuring 4.5m x 2.6m, things fell into place. “We were able to understand the scale and epic sense of it,” Scott-Blackhall added.
Being surrounded by Rothkos is one thing, but they also had to get into the mind of the artist. And for the director, who admitted to not really knowing much about Rothko, a fair amount of time was spent researching, including reading the biography written by James Breslin.
“We delved quite heavily into the world of art. This play is littered with mentions of artists, classic and modern ones, and it’s almost like, in every paragraph, there was a reference we weren’t familiar with,” she said.
Logan’s script also incorporated real quotes from Rothko. “Obviously this play is not a biography, but Logan has woven true events into the script, mentioning his travels and the things he saw — for example, seeing The Conversion Of Saul (by Caravaggio, at the Santa Maria Del Popolo church in Rome),” said the director.
The actors — who weren’t visual artists — had to get the feel of things, too. The Esplanade’s visual arts programmer, artist and Singapore Biennale curator Tamares Goh, held several impromptu art lessons with them. “She taught them about the spectrum of colours, the difference between oil, watercolour and acrylic, how Rothko could have ‘floated’ the blocks of colour in the paintings,” recalled Scott-Blackhall. As Ken, Rothko’s assistant, actor Yap even had to learn how to stretch the canvas that Jenkin’s Rothko would use prior to painting.
Scott-Blackhall, whose interest in doing Red was piqued after doing a bio-drama on Sigmund Freud and CS Lewis, Freud’s Last Session in 2012, admitted that working on the Rothko play has opened her eyes to art.
“I used to wander into art galleries, especially overseas, and spend a lot of time inside looking at paintings, but I think I’m able to see these better now. I can’t say I’m an expert, but I do believe I can look at a painting a little bit differently now,” she said, adding that she prefers abstract rather than figurative art — and Miro in particular.
The themes tackled in Red bleed into the kind of art Scott-Blackhall practises as a stage and TV director. The debate about art and commercialism is something she said she has a hard time answering. “Rothko was asked to paint this commission for an amount of money that was more than any other artist in his time, and Ken poses the question of whether he’s selling out or whether the works belong in a restaurant where no one’s paying attention,” she said. “If you take that into theatre or my own work and experience, it’s true — and it’s a tough question to answer.”
“Theatre is not awarded by money, that’s for sure, but my passion to tell this story is so much more than what I would gain financially from doing it,” Scott-Blackhall added. “However, there were times in my career when I had to do corporate shows or TV advertisements — these things, there’s less of an artistic attention and more of a ‘get it done’ attitude.
“But having said that, I’m the type of person who throws herself completely to the work anyway. You do things to survive.”
Red is from July 10 to 13, 8pm, Esplanade Theatre Studio. With additional 3pm, 7.30pm, 10pm and 10.30pm shows. Tickets at S$28 (RM72) from Sistic. — Today
