RED has opened at QPAC

The Queensland Theatre Company painted the town red on Thursday for the opening night of John Logan’s award winning play Red at QPAC’s Playhouse Theatre.

Winning six Tony Awards including Best Play (2010), and the Drama Desk award for Outstanding Play (2010), John Logan is perhaps best known for his screenplays including Gladiator, The Aviator, Hugo and James Bond film Skyfall.

Imported from the Melbourne Theatre Company, and under the direction of Alkinos Tsilimidos, Red takes a look at the life of Mark Rothko, one of the preeminent abstract expressionist painters of his generation who, over fifty years, created a new and impassioned form of abstract painting.

The production stars famed Australian actor Colin Friels as Mark Rothko, the tortured artist who literally paints himself into a corner. Rothko also used his art as a protest piece against the richest bastards in New York, vowing clandestinely to create stomach-turning crimson canvases that would “ruin the appetite of every son- of-a-bitch who eats there” – but in 1959 he stormily reclaimed the paintings and gave back the money.

For a glimpse into the art world and into the mind of Mark Rothko, go and see Red, playing in the Playhouse Theatre at QPAC until 19 May.

For more information, see the Queensland Theatre Company website

Duration: 90 minutes (no interval)
Bookings:  qpac.com.au or 136 246