Set during the time when Rothko had been commissioned to deliver what were known as the Seagram Murals for the walls of the Four Seasons restaurant in Manhattan in the late 1950s, the play is a two-hander between the artist (Alfred Molina) and his new young assistant, Ken (Eddie Redmayne).

Logan portrays Rothko as so passionate about his work that he's not convinced anybody should actually ever see it. "Selling a picture is like sending a blind child into a room full of razor blades," he says. Doggedly working class about his daily rituals, the painter demonstrates no interest in his new employee even though the lad tells him his parents were murdered and that he also is an artist.

Most of their exchanges involve Rothko lecturing Ken about every aspect of shapes, sizes and especially colors, having chosen red and black for the Seagram works. Foreshadowing the artist's later suicide, he says, "There is only one thing I fear in life, my friend: One day the black will swallow the red."

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