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Regional Reviews: Boston Bakersfield Mist Also see Nancy's review of Time Stands Still
Thanks to the creative, detailed work by Scenic Designer Jiyoun Chang, Costume Designer Anne Miggins, and Properties Designers Nick Dorr and Mary Fritz, we think we know Maude. To call her rough around the edges would be an understatement. Her first words begin mostly with the letter "f" (use your imagination) when she yells at the neighbor's dog that is barking at her approaching visitor. In addition to her serial profanity, the unemployed bartender is a chain smoker and serious drinker, downing shot after shot of Jack Daniels. As she says about herself, "My social skills need f***in' polishing," and she is not above offering certain sexual favors to gain an advantage. Sachs also provides many visual and verbal cues to introduce us to Lionel Percy, the distinguished-appearing visitor from New York. Tall and trim with a neatly clipped goatee, his well-tailored double breasted suit accentuates his erect posture, his leather attaché case denotes his professionalism, and his articulate manner of speaking demonstrates his breeding and education. As for his social skills, he is all about the business at hand, although it is not beneath him to utter the occasional snide comment in response to Maude. What has brought these two individuals together is strictly business. Maude purchased the ugliest painting she could find at a thrift store as a joke for a friend. When her friend rejected it, Maude tried to sell it a yard sale, only to be informed by the local art teacher that it might be a Jackson Pollock. Hoping to verify this claim, she hired Percy, a renowned Pollock expert from the International Foundation for Art Research, and he flew on the IFAR's private jet from New York to Bakersfield, California, to pass judgment. When Percy refuses to authenticate the painting and then seems to pass judgment on Maude, the gloves come off and sparks fly in many directions. Over the course of seventy-five minutes, this one-act play delves into the psyches of the two and offers a primer on the dangers of judging a book by its cover. Paula Langton gives an outstanding, gripping performance as a woman who is misunderstood and running very low on options. All that stands between her and desperation is hope, her innate intelligence and the ability to deduce alternatives where there seem to be none. Langton is equally credible as the rough talking, whiskey swilling, down on her luck member of the 99% and as the persistent, forensic amateur unwilling to compromise on the truth. Ken Cheeseman is a worthy sparring partner, first presenting as an excessively refined snob whose lot in life is to suffer fools and the hoi polloi, basically everyone he considers his intellectual inferior. However, Percy finds something so genuine about Maude that it causes him to reconsider the façade he hides behind and share his well-guarded hurts and passions. When he compares his former high position in the art world to priesthood and the Vatican, Cheeseman adopts an expression of ecstasy, appearing to inhale a sacred vapor. He gradually humanizes the character and, even though one might expect it to happen, Cheeseman is never obvious about it. As in the recent New Rep production of Yasmina Reza's Art, the painting in question in Bakersfield Mist serves as a metaphor for the people and relationships that the playwright has created. While they debate and argue about whether the painting is authentic, it evolves into a battle of class warfare, the 1% vs. the 99%, and whose opinion means something. When their personal integrity is called into question, Maude and Percy each respond in the only way they know, informed by their divergent backgrounds and true to their core values. It turns out that they're not so different after all. Bakersfield Mist, performances through March 18 at New Repertory Theatre Black Box at Arsenal Center for the Arts, Watertown, MA; Box Office 617-923-8487 or www.newrep.org. A National New Play Network rolling world premiere and co-production with Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater (WHAT) by Stephen Sachs, Directed by Jeff Zinn; Jiyoun Chang, Scenic Designer; Anne Miggins, Costume Designer; John Malinowski, Lighting Designer; Nathan Leigh, Sound Designer; Joseph Travers, Fight Director; Nick Dorr & Mary Fritz, Properties Designers; Phill Madore, Stage Manager Cast: Ken Cheeseman (Lionel Percy), Paula Langton (Maude Gutman)
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