Magnificent performances brighten stage company's 'Red'

"Red" is a brave choice for the Virginia Stage Company.

The Tony Award winner deals with an artist who contemplates the meaning of his work as he berates and challenges his young assistant. What we get on stage is smart, sophisticated and entertaining but, sadly, a revelation that the latest "snob hits" from New York are not as meaningful as those of yesteryear.

John Logan's play, magnificently performed by crusty Robert Dorfman and sensitively rebellious Eric Gilde, is the kind of play that congratulates smart folks for being smart.

It is a bit too self-conscious, though, in suggesting how lucky we are to hear Nietzsche and Jackson Pollock discussed in a mere theater.

And, indeed, we are lucky, but we have to think twice about it when the youngster tells the mature artist that he wallows too much in "the importance of seriousness." It is an amiable debate about the meaning of creative thought. We know that we live in a world where people no longer have time to read and most think of "art" as something to put over the mantel.

As the young man warns the older: "You are crying about the barbarians being at the gate, but the people actually like the barbarians."

As presented here, abstract expressionist Mark Rothko is "full of himself." He doesn't have the wit, though, of an Oscar Wilde or a Noel Coward. When we meet him, he is undertaking a series of murals commissioned by the Four Seasons restaurant in New York, a place he feels is full of "forced gaiety at gunpoint."

Dorfman's Rothko is both fiery and understandably logical in his self-obsession. It is a fine performance, even though the writing occasionally requires too-sudden mood changes.

Logan, who wrote the script for the movie "Gladiator," is quite anxious to throw out the kind of crumbs that would allow middlebrows to perceive themselves as highbrows, particularly when they can contribute knowing laughs to references to Nietzsche or Jung. Logan writes in echoes. He follows most insights with a repeat later, just to see if you were listening.

Gilde brings an admirable balance of naivete and eventual rebellion to the assistant. In the early moments, he worships Rothko, but he eventually sees through the older man's pretension. The audience is ready to cheer when he stands up and challenges the master. Gilde is that rare young actor who can suggest sensitivity and rebellion at almost the same moment. His career has great promise.

Director Chris Hanna is obviously a great lover of theater and of this kind of homage to the words of theater. He keeps his two characters thoroughly grounded at all times.

The dark tunnel and warehouse look of Rothko's studio is ominously and intriguingly captured by lighting designer John Ambrosone and set designer Bill Clarke.

This is not the kind of crowd-pleaser you'd expect as a payoff to one of VSC's most impressive publicity campaigns. "Red," though, is the kind of theater that draws more respect than enthusiasm.