Premiered in 2009, Vermelho [Red], by the US writer John Logan, is based on a real-life event from the late 1950s, when the Four Seasons restaurant, in New York, invited painter Mark Rothko to create a series of murals in its premises, in exchange for a sizeable amount of money. To help him fulfil that task, Rothko hired a young assistant named Ken. What starts out as a simple working relationship quickly turns into an intense and powerful dialogue between a master and his disciple on the most important issues concerning art. Staged by Carlos Pimenta, this new creation of Ensemble – Sociedade de Actores reflects back to the audience the same questions that trouble the characters in Vermelho. Questions that regard painting, but may also pertain to the theatre: “Should art be a merely amusing and decorative element, or should it instead bring man into touch with himself and the mystery of existence?”