Bakersfield Mist

**BY STEPHEN SACHS**
Directed by Jennifer Flowers
11th May - 3rd June, 2023

Director’s notes

Bakersfield Mist is a battle between polar opposites: Maude Gutman, who believes she has acquired a Jackson Pollock in a Bakersfield junk shop and engages an eminent art critic from NYC to assess it; and Lionel Percy, whose job is to flush out fakes as he finds them, and is determined to deny authenticity to this painting. At the heart of the play though, is a journey to a reversal of sorts. Bit by bit these characters are changed by each other; the urbane and intellectual scholar who lives in his "head" versus the raw and feisty ex- bartender who won't be side-lined or looked down on by her "betters". Bit by bit they are changed by each other: he softens and opens up and she starts to understand the spiritual power of Art. The play is an advocate for the wonders of all art forms and their transcendental ability to inspire and sustain us.

The pleasure of directing a piece of theatre is the slow building of layers in an empty space which starts with the director and the designer and gradually adds all the elements to make a whole: lighting, sound, set, props, fight choreography and of course, two very accomplished actors, Fiona Kennedy and Steven Grives.

I've been lucky enough to have Bill Haycock to create this wonderful version of trailer park life, and Geoff Squires to light it. Bakersfield Mist is so-called realism but that doesn't mean it it's a free for all of everyday living. To extract true meaning from a play means the production must incorporate all the art forms really: words, music, dance, form, architecture, painting. Together, all of us work with these elements towards the distillation of the play's truthful essence so that it can reveal its themes and provide a thought- provoking and amusing experience for an audience.

I'd like to thank Ad Astra for giving us the opportunity to work in this small black box, as well as provide both an actress - Fiona - and a set builder- Dan- to help bring Bakersfield Mist to life.

Thank you also to Cale Dennis and Greg Scurr - our Stage Manager and Assistant Director respectively- for being excellent fellow- travellers.

Jennifer Flowers

Designer’s notes

Bakersfield Mist has offered some great design challenges. From the earliest discussions with Jennifer, we knew we wanted to create a believable world for Maude, our central character…a space brimming with exuberant detail and her life, crammed densely with her bravado and pain intertwined. It literally took months to carefully find and collage together Maude’s world - her scripted passions - drinking, her beloved son but we evolved a few other more random ones… elephants, owls, flamingos that spoke to her obsessive nature and her dreams. We wanted a desert hotbox - a sanctuary home for Maude but something unsettling and foreign to Lionel.

Over the years I’ve been privileged to work again and again in the same spaces - exploring them afresh with each new play and director - the original La Boite, the original QPAC Cremorne, the Princess when TN! Theatre Company was resident. I’ve similarly enjoyed pushing this tiny intimate Ad Astra space around in different ways - columns to break up the space but ironically make it seem larger for Red, Depression era evocation, textures and illusion for Of Mice and Men (both immeasurably helped by the brilliant lighting of David Walters), the mix of detailed naturalism and stylisation of A Life in the Theatre and now this heightened naturalistic world of Maude’s.This time we’re so fortunate that the brave, talented (and very busy) lighting designer Geoff Squires chose to come on the ride, even taking on the challenge of my claustrophobic ceiling.

Maude’s Pollock painting was another fascinating design and execution challenge - evoke his work well enough but try and leave the decision as to authenticity up to the viewer. I immersed myself in his work and photographs and videos of him working - the meat of Lionel’s wonderful speech about his methods and innovation…and came to appreciate the heady mix of release and control his paintings require to paint and achieve their energy and balance. The series he did in the early fifties are, I think some of his best - ‘Lavender Mist’, ‘One: Number 31’ and so on. There was also the ‘real Maude’ Teri Horton painting to look at and so I drew from each for ‘my’ Pollock.

Bill Haycock

About the Play

Bakersfield Mist is inspired by the true story of a retired long-haul trucker in California, Teri Horton, who went hunting for a gag present for her depressed friend. She found and bought a big painting of drips and splurges and squiggles, in a junk shop. She paid five dollars for the "masterpiece" and, after her friend rejected it, added it to a garage sale. This was where it was seen by an art teacher, who thought it might be a Jackson Pollock, the mid 20th century abstract expressionist. So began an extraordinary determination to have the painting authenticated and, perhaps sold for millions of dollars. The most famous of the experts who came to view the picture was Thomas Hoving, a one-time Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is the meeting of these two characters which forms the basis of this play, albeit with different character names.

Steven Sachs has written a taut, sometimes hilarious, sometimes fraught drama about this encounter which becomes a battle of class, education, common sense versus experience, fake versus real- with two larger than life characters who refuse to shift their perspectives; his- that the picture is a fake; hers- that the picture is genuine. It's an excellent vehicle for two virtuoso performers and takes the audience on a roller coaster ride throughout the entire 90 minutes of its duration.

Warning

This production includes: Use of herbal cigarettes, coarse language and sexual references, depictions of violence, mentions of suicide.

CAST

Maude Gutman - Fiona Kennedy

Lionel Percy - Steven Grives

CREW

Director - Jennifer Flowers

Assistant Director/Sound Design - Greg Scurr

Stage Manager/Production Assistant - Cale Dennis

Lighting and Sound Tech - Cale Dennis/Duncan Shipley-Smith

Lighting Design - Geoff Squires

Set & Costume Design - Bill Haycock

Set Construction - Dan Kennedy

Show Poster

Reviews

“Fiona Kennedy was dynamic as Maude Gutman, her comedic rough edges balanced by her unpretentious sincerity. Grives’ performance as Lionel Percy was expressive, and there were many moments of engaging silence, including his first viewing of the painting, as the audience watched his face closely for changing expressions. This kind of close-up storytelling is only possible in intimate theatres like Ad Astra, where it can be utilised and appreciated by an audience in such close proximity to the stage.”

Backstreet Brisbane | Read more

“Ad Astra’s talented cast have brought Bakersfield Mist to life on stage, through different vocal and physical levels, pace and timing, and have highlighted the poignant aspects of the play. It leaves the audience riveted. Congratulations to Jennifer Flowers and cast!!”

Lilian Harrington - Absolute Theatre | Read more

“The culture clash provides a wonderful canvas for the performers who use their wit and timing to keep things moving. The 90-minute single act whizzes by too soon!”

Beth Keehn - Stage Whispers | Read more

“Energised and engaging, Ad Astra’s rendition of Bakersfield Mist is a playful exploration of how art can affect the human experience and how the human experience can in turn affect art.”

Annabel Gilbert - Theatre Haus | Read more