ROHTKO

Director Łukasz Twarkowski
Dramaturg Anka Herbut
Set Designer Fabien Lédé
Costume Designer Svenja Gassen
Choreographer Paweł Sakowicz
Composer Lubomir Grzelak
Video Designer Jakub Lech
Lighting Designer Eugenijus Sabaliauskas
Assistant Directors Diāna Kaijaka, Adam Zduńczyk, Mārtiņš Gūtmanis
Assistant Costume Designer Bastian Stein
Assistant Dramaturg Linda Šterna
Assistant Video Designer Adam Zduńczyk
Video Camera Operators Arturs Gruzdiņš & Jonatans Goba

Cast
Juris Bartkevičs (Rohtko)
Kaspars Dumburs (Wolt vendor 1 / Orion Anastapolou)
Ilze Ķuzule-Skrastiņa (Actress)
Yan Huang (Hai)
Andrzej Jakubczyk (Actor)
Katarzyna Osipuk (Performer and waitress Destiny Hope)
Artūrs Skrastiņš (Wolt vendor 2 / Domenico de Sole)
Mārtiņš Upenieks (Jack Smith – Museum Director)
Vita Vārpiņa (Mell Rohtko)
Toms Veličko (Journalist James Vulture)
Xiaochen Wang (Tao)

Created in co-operation with JK Opole Theater in Poland and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute with co-financing from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland. Innovation Partner - Latvijas Mobilais Telefons (LMT).

Spelling mistake or intentional statement? The misspellings ROHTKO and ROTKHO play into the production’s central theme: the relationship between the fake and the original, and how famous brands are often imitated with counterfeit names such as Adibas or Dolce & Banana. It draws on Graham Rawlinson’s hypothesis – known as the typoglycaemia effect – which suggests that the human brain can still read text as long as the first and last letters of each word remain in place. So, what do you think: is a ROTKHO or a ROHTKO really any different – or less valuable – than a ROTHKO?

This is not a play about Mark Rothko. This is not even a play about Mark Rohtko. In a 1999 issue of New Scientist, Graham Rawlinson claimed and demonstrated that written text can be understood no matter what order the letters in a word are in – the only important thing is that the first and last letter are in the right place. However, the spelling error in the title of the show reveals something more. Our intention was not to present a biographical performance, although Rothko’s personality is, indeed, fascinating and his paintings, in the words of American art critic Jerry Saltz, act as ‘Buddhist television sets’. We were more interested in the portrayal of the artist (both male and female), the unwritten rules of the art market, as well as the self-evidence and assertiveness with which value – either emotional, intellectual or market – is attributed to art.

Can good art be cheap?

What is good art?

What is art?

Alternative answers can be sought, for example, in the Chinese 'shanzhai' concept, discussed by philosopher Byung-Chul Han in the book Deconstruction in Chinese Philosophy, where he explores the strict distinction between copy and original. What does this distinction mean in the context of art and beyond? Such division posits that the original is the principal embodiment of truth, value and individuality, while the copy is mere imitation and repetition. Chinese thought leads in a different direction – closer to what, paradoxically, Rothko also explores.

Rothko – the artist who didn’t paint the work bearing his signature that was sold at the Knoedler Gallery in New York for $8.5 million. The very same artist who insisted that if something is worth doing once, it’s worth doing many times. One of the artists associated with the Fluxus group, Robert Filliou, once said that art is everything an artist calls art. However, nowadays it’s not so simple. Today, art is more defined by what a curator, gallerist, collector, influencer, NFT creator, entrepreneur or buyer labels as art. 

There also exists the countercultural concept which suggests that every living body’s encounter with the world, every experience we have, is art. One of the characters in this show, Destiny Hope, speaks about the tears of a performance artist that were supposed to flow while she was standing in front of Rothko’s paintings. However, the tears were unable to flow, remaining in the realm of intention on one hand, and the state of continuous potentiality on the other. Destiny Hope allows the tears to manifest within her own body – the body of an actress. She promises to gift them to the future when people will no longer feel anything when looking at art. For now, she bestows them upon us.

– Anka Herbut

Łukasz Twarkowski

Director

Łukasz creates multimedia performances combining theatre and visual arts. He places his projects in the context of extending reality through multimedia. A crucial element of his creative work is investigating the ability and limitations of theatre as a medium and tool of communication. By permanent deconstruction of narratives, questioning the fixed habits of the audience and by meaningful usage of new media, Łukasz creates a new, original language of stage performance based on multimedia and, more widely, digital technologies. In using these, Łukasz analyses and observes increasingly complex relations between the real, the symbolic and the imagined. His projects are programmed at important festivals and stages around the world, including, among others, Odéon – Théâtre de l’Europe, Ruhrtriennale, Skirball Cultural Center in New York, Piccolo Teatro di Milano, Festival de Otoño in Madrid, Münchner Kammerspiele, Wiener Festwochen, Holland Festival, Southbank Centre in London, Onassis Stegi in Athens, Taiwan Performing Arts Center and Seoul Performing Arts Festival. Recently, he was awarded the Premi Ubu in Italy, The Faust German Theatre Prize and the Distinguished Artist Award by the International Society of Performing Arts. From 2023-2024 Łukasz was an associated artist of the Onassis Foundation, and in 2025 became an associated artist of Piccolo Teatro di Milano.

Anka Herbut  

Writer & Dramaturg 

Anka is a playwright, dramaturg and curator working across theatre and choreography. Her practice weaves together critical inquiry, theoretical reflection and social engagement. She is particularly interested in feminist strategies of world-building and the poetic, performative potential of language, while also exploring the social possibilities of choreography. Her ongoing research project Resistance Movements investigates embodiments of resistance and new models of being and acting together. She is a member of the transnational feminist collective, Systering, and part of the programming team at TR Warszawa in Poland. 

Dailes Theatre (Latvia) 

Dailes Theatre is the largest professional theatre in the Baltic States, with a history and traditions stretching back over a century.  

The artistic vision and drive of the theatre were created by its founder, the legendary director Eduards Smiļģis whose dynamic style shaped the theatre for more than 40 years. His aesthetic was based on what was, for his time, a bold and radical style of visual expression. Today that tradition continues, with new innovations and aesthetic challenges driving the artistic direction of the theatre. 

Supported by Perth Festival Medici donors.