ongoing – Sun. Feb. 5

 John Logan’s “Red,” which is at the Wimberly Theatre at the Calderwood Pavilion through Super Bowl Sunday, is a 90-minute two-man play about, oh,, lots of things, even as it takes place in one room (art studio). It centers – oh, does it center - around abstract painter Mark Rothko and his angst as he hits the twilight of his career, specifically his bitter joy and explosive rage at being commissioned to paint a series of works to go up at a new Four Seasons restaurant in New York.  It was 1958. And this was most prestigious, the grandest public commission an abstract expressionist had ever received and yet … well, it would also be background for a dining room in which blithe rich people would eat, people who Rothko felt he had no connection with or empathy for. Rothko’s works are huge slabs of red, maroon and black streaks. Not pretty, pretty dark.

     ^{_{Rothko – as brilliantly played by Thomas Derrah in the SpeakEasy’s production and directed by David Gammons – has a love/hate relationship with himself. And not a lot of empathy for anyone else. This isn’t part of the play, but there is a point near the end where you think Rothko’s self-hatred might explode (considering what we know about him). As the Guardian wrote in 2002, “Mark Rothko was found on the morning of February 25 1970, lying dead in a wine-dark sea of his own blood. He had cut very deep into his arms at the elbow, and the pool emanating from him on the floor of his studio measured 8ft x 6ft. That is, it was on the scale of his paintings. It was, to borrow the art critical language of the time, a colour field.”}}

  _^“Red” won four Tonys in 2010, including the big one, best play. And it is tremendously involving, as Rothko invites a young art student Ken (Karl Baker Olson) in to be his assistant – not his friend, mind you. But over the course of time a relationship of sorts develops. The problem with Rothko – who says he wants his paintings to inspire a conversation with the viewers – is that he harbors contempt for most anyone who might approach his work, from galleries, to museums, to fans. And his involvement with himself – he’s a hermit, really, shut off from the world and shut up in his studio, scornful of natural light – is the horrible part about, let’s face it, a number of famous artists, whatever their field. One question “Red” raises is: Does talent and success isolate one from the world in which he ostensibly draws inspiration?

      Rothko and Ken start out as master-servant, but along the way, as Ken develops (outside Rothko’s studio) as an artist in his own right, he begins to challenge Rothko’s miserablism and misanthropy.

  “I always seek out those characters who simultaneously confuse me and vex me and challenge me and annoy me and inspire me,” playwright Logan told the Globe. Logan’s play will likely instill all those thoughts in you too. Is this vain, exasperating, brilliant man worth your time and concern? Yes, he is.

Shows; Thursday at 7:30. Friday at 8, Saturday at 4 and 8, Sunday at 1.

Tickets: $55-$30

527 Tremont St., 617-933-8600 www.SpeakEasyStage.com