“Red” provides 90 minutes of gripping drama in the excellent production at The New Jewish Theatre.

The Tony Award–winning play by John Logan is about the great American artist, Mark Rothko. He was born Marcus Rothkowitz in 1903. His first dealer thought he was representing too many Jewish painters, so Rothko shortened his name. “Now nobody knows I’m a Jew,” Rothko says in the play.

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In 1958 and 1959, he was working on a series of murals for the Four Seasons restaurant in Manhattan’s new Seagram Building, a masterpiece of modern design by the world-renowned architects, Philip Johnson and Mies van der Rohe. Johnson himself called Rothko to offer the commission. “Thirty-five thousand dollars, they are paying me,” Rothko says. “No other artist comes close.”

Instead of completing the work, Rothko returned the money and kept the paintings. Logan’s play shows how the artist might have reached that decision by exploring Rothko’s philosophy of art.

To give Rothko someone to talk to, Logan includes a fictional character named Ken, whom Rothko has hired as his assistant. Ken’s job is menial—from mixing paints and cleaning brushes to picking up food and cigarettes. The closest he will come to painting is applying ground color, but Rothko insists that is not painting.

Ken wants to be an artist, so there is a reason for the two men to speak about art. At first, Rothko does most of the talking. He is short-tempered and opinionated, but he has a profound reverence for works of art. He tells Ken, “These pictures deserve compassion and they live or die in the eye of the sensitive viewer.”

Ken is initially meek and easily intimidated, but he grows by listening to Rothko. The dynamic between the two men changes when Ken is asked to amplify a comment that piqued Rothko’s interest. Their conversations begin to have more give and take.

Eventually, they argue fiercely about pop art. Rothko hates it because he thinks the artists lack seriousness. He says they “are out to murder me.” Ken defends young artists such as Jasper Johns, Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. The emergence of Ken’s own artistic personality leads to a surprising and deeply moving conclusion.

The characters are brought vividly to life by Christopher Harris as Rothko and Dustin Lane Petrillo as Ken. Harris captures the quickness of Rothko’s mind and the force of his personality. Petrillo builds a thoroughly convincing arc for Ken’s development.

Michele Friedman Siler’s costumes and Katie Orr’s props firmly anchor the production in its period. Justin Smith’s sound design encompasses Rothko’s preferences in music. Jayson M. Lawshee’s lighting evinces the aversion for natural light Rothko frequently expresses in the play.

Both Logan and NJT’s director, Alan Knoll, make sure the play does not become static. In one scene, Ken staples canvas to wooden stretcher bars while talking with Rothko. In another, both men furiously apply ground color to a bare canvas. Knoll’s blocking takes full advantage of the remarkable set in NJT’s Wool Studio Theatre.

Scenic designers Margery and Peter Spack did extensive research on the converted gymnasium where Rothko worked in the Bowery section of lower Manhattan. Their faithful recreation of this space provides a wonderful setting for the action.

Among the wealth of eye-catching detail is the heating system suspended high above the floor. The radiators are a striking reminder of how big the original space was. After the Sunday matinee on Aug. 4, Margery Spack will speak on the designers’ research and their process in adapting Rothko’s studio for the NJT production.

‘Red’

WHEN: Through Aug. 11
WHERE:  New Jewish Theatre’s Wool Studio Theater in the Jewish Community Center’s Arts & Education Building, 2 Millstone Campus Drive
HOW MUCH: $27 to $58
MORE INFO:  Visit newjewishtheatre.org or call 314-442-3283