BLOEMFONTEIN – John Logan’s acclaimed play, RED, comes to the stage in a compelling production at the Wynand Mouton Theater. This production that premiered at the Donmar Warehouse Theater in London in 2009, examines mentorship, artistic authority and the struggle to find one’s own creative voice.

Set in the New York studio of celebrated painter Mark Rothko in the late 1950s, the play follows Rothko as he works on the Seagram Murals with the assistance of Ken, a young artist eager to learn from one of his generation’s leading painters.

What begins as a master-and-apprentice relationship gradually develops into a fierce exchange of ideas about art, ambition, legacy, and relevance. As Ken grows in confidence, he begins to question the very principles Rothko has taught him, forcing both men to confront what it means to learn from the past without becoming trapped by it.

With only two performers, the play has the shifting relationship between mentor and protégé at its centre. Intellectual debate gives way to humour, confrontation, and unexpected vulnerability as teacher and student gradually begin to meet as artists in their own right.

Norman Doubell plays Ken and Thys Heydenrych plays Mark Rothko in this 90-minute production on 12 and 13 November at 18:00.

Chris Vorster and Thys Heydenrych are the directors.

Tickets cost R40 to R60 and are available at the door or on webtickets.co.za.

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