“Red” by John Logan previews Tuesday, March 24, and opens Friday, March 27, and runs through April 12. “Red” drops into the studio of abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko as he develops his famous Seagram Murals for the Four Seasons restaurant. Rothko and his young assistant, Ken, spar over issues of art, commerce and philosophy.

The play is a taut and passionate drama with a visually stunning design that explores major questions of creative expression and ownership. The tension between commerce and creation is a central theme of the play: can Rothko create genuine works of art — works that provoke feeling, that are as mythically grand as he intends — while working under commission to decorate a restaurant? Is it possible for commercial viability and artistic integrity to coexist, or does the former necessarily corrupt the latter? The relationship between Ken and Rothko, which serves as a proxy for that between abstract expressionism and pop art, is also full of questions: is it necessary, as Rothko proposes, for each generation to “kill” the former, even if they respect them? Is there a way for two successive ideals to coexist, or does the later one always invalidate the earlier? Finally, the play explores the relationship between art and viewer, and whether art has to challenge us and make us feel something, or whether some art is less audacious. If so, as Rothko asks, is it still “art?”

John Logan is a Tony Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated American playwright and screenwriter. He has worked extensively in Chicago as a playwright, producing works such as “Never the Sinner” (1985), “Hauptmann” (1986), and “Music from a Locked Room” (1989). He later began working as a screenwriter, and has produced such acclaimed screenplays as Gladiator (2000), “The Last Samurai” (2003), “The Aviator” (2004), “Rango” (2011), “Coriolanus” (2011), “Hugo” (2011), “Skyfall” (2012), and “Noah” (2014). While the range of his work makes it difficult to identify a John Logan “style,” the writer’s dramas on stage and screen frequently involve explorations of historical figures characterized by a visceral emotional life and vigorously intellectual outlook. His more recent work for the stage includes “Peter and Alice” (2013), which starred Dame Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw, and “I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat With Sue Mengers” (2013), which starred Bette Midler.

For more information or for tickets, call 774-0465 or visit www.portlandstage.org