“There is only one thing I fear in life my friend… One day the black will swallow the red.”

Red is John Logan’s portrait of Mark Rothko, the 20th century artist known for his large canvases of colour. 

Under the watchful gaze of his young assistant and the threatening presence of a new generation of artists, Mark Rothko takes on his greatest challenge yet: to create a definitive work for an extraordinary setting. 

Red is a moving and compelling account of Rothko’s struggle to accept his growing riches and the praise heaped upon him, which became his ultimate undoing. 

Red stars Alfred Molina as Rothko. Molina is best known for his numerous screen appearances in films including The Lodger, The Da Vinci Code, As You Like It, Spiderman II, Frida, Chocolat, Magnolia, Boogie Nights and Raiders Of The Lost Ark. He will soon be seen in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. 

The cast of Red also, somewhat appropriately, contains rising star Eddie Redmayne who received acclaim for his performance in Now Or Later at the Royal Court last year. His television credits include Tess Of The D’Urbervilles for the BBC.

Logan is a playwright and screenwriter whose impressive screenplay CV includes Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, The Aviator, Gladiator and The Last Samurai.

Red is directed by Michael Grandage, the Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse and the director of numerous hit shows there as well as the quartet of shows in the Donmar West End season which included Hamlet and Twelfth Night.  

For more about Red at the Donmar Warehouse, read the First Night Feature and Big Interview with Eddie Redmayne.